Damascus Steel
by Hollis V. Saxon
Summary: Act One: Volker, suffering an emotional breakdown, is visited by a strange individual and tasked with leading a journey across the land of Ivalice, to serve an unknown goal, while a group of demons calling themselves the End beckons him to join their side of Darkness.
1. Chapter 1

A Prologue

"Hey. Get up," I remember my sister saying, tired, and then leaving me to rise and shine. She would be around 18 and at Basic, right? I reached over and grabbed my phone to check the time. It was barely five in the morning. I put it back and turned up the volume on my mp3 player, which was playing soft lullabies, and retreated under the covers. For some time, I listened as the songs passed over one another, until the first alarm on my alarm clock went off. I walked over to it, half asleep, and turned it off.

I sat back onto the bed going over the events happening that day.

Morning stuff, school, something else, and…

Nothing really. I leaned back and closed my eyes, wishing I could fall into a wormhole to another dimension where I could always do something. Even the idea of going to Ivalice or Kanto was better than staying here, whether or not it was safer or more stable here.

My sister's memory barged into the room, as usual when I don't leave my room quickly and excited. "Get up, sleepy head," she muttered before leaving again. I switched into school clothes and grabbed my school bag and killed the second alarm as I left.

The day passed without incident, event, or change. Teachers instructing and students writing away and my soul writhing on in an undead boy, lurching on from class to class, each giving a hope spot for change, only finding a train to shoot it down.

Finally, gym class arrived. Time to build up a body that was decaying at the roots. Switching into my gym clothes, I entered the gym ready for the day to be over, and thought of the only thing I need to cheer my out of this melancholy: Heleaven, a Halloween town that I thought of one day in English for an assignment on the setting of a story.

I put my stuff in a corner of the gym by the bleachers, when from nowhere someone came up behind me and covered my eyes, painfully gripping the sides of my head tightly and held me there. Loosening their grip, a woman's voice spoke the following words:

"I have been watching you throughout the day. From this view, to think that you have near infinite potential one has got to be insane. From your point of view, however, one must be away from kinetic noise to reach such. I've arranged an event for you to get out of this rut. Inside this envelope is the details of the event, if you wish to."

"Whom am I agreeing with?" I asked. They said nothing, but released me and vanished an instant later. I quickly opened my eyes and looked around. Nothing had changed. Likely story. I sat down, glancing at my bag that had the envelope.

Fishing it out, I began to read it. This was either the biggest train wreck or the Hammer staff of God.

* * *

><p>"Make sure you bring the game tomorrow!" Courtney, my new friend reminded me, her soft brown eyes and hair disappearing behind the door.<p>

"Yeah, yeah," I said as the door closed. I turned and walked down the street towards my place. The event the person set up was a date with a girl from my school going to see a movie. At first neither of us really wanted to go, since this was our first time meeting each other, and then… we saw a movie and ate out for dinner on my expense, then we walked home together. At some point in there we agreed on the friendship and somehow got onto a topic on videogames, and she became interested in playing one of the games I had.

If I needed to do anything now it was to thank the masquerade person.

"Hurry," the person's voice said, disembodied.

I jumped and spun around, but saw no one there. Rather than standing there to contemplate whether or not to trust the woman like I usually would, I began my trek home in a good mood.

I reached my house around eleven without incident, and snuck into my house through the back door and quickly but quietly entered my room.

Vrrm. My cell phone beeped to indicate a new message. "You have an hour to get over here," the message read.

"Right," I said silently. I switched out of my overbearing coat and bland school clothes and into a more comfortable outfit: a black shirt with a blue Repeat All symbol on the back, a pair of black denim jeans and a vest.

I grabbed the smaller of my two messenger bags, the bigger in less than workable condition from school, and packed a change of clothes, some hygiene items, and a Last Luck rune from a D&D set that seemed to help me at the last moment when I needed it, but served as a loadstone any other time.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, finding it surprisingly light, I opened my door when my phone buzzed again. "Sword," it commanded.

"Fine," I muttered. I ducked into my room again and picked up my wooden practice sword, swung it once, and stashed it partially in my bag. "Anything else you want?" I asked my phone as I finally left.

It wasn't until two-thirds of the way that I started to notice how cold it was at night. I checked the time, and found it was about eleven-thirty at night. The timer on my phone had dropped to less than twenty minutes left, which was hopefully plenty of time.

I shivered slightly as the cold early September air stole away my body's heat.

_Chuu!_

I jumped as someone sneezed behind me, when they haven't been making any sounds at all. Instinctively I grabbed my sword and spun around, stopping in a mock defensive stance. I saw a girl about my age with really, really long silver hair wearing a black sorcerer's robe with blue stripes on the sleeves. Her eyes were dark red, deeper than bloodshot red. Otherwise, she had a scar that ran down her face diagonally that caused both sides to look different shades of pale.

"Oh, hey," I greeted. "Were you the one from earlier? I have to thank you very much. I feel truly better now."

"Eh?" she gasped, startled. "Ah… umm…" She muttered awkwardly before hiding in her hood. Standing straighter, she looked back at me with a look that was different than a minute ago. "I have come to set you on a different course. If you wish to stay and rot in this place, be my guest, but I have come on orders from my superiors to send you on a path that will strengthen you." Even though the sneeze and awkward moment was a slip up or a different person/personality altogether, she was serious now.

"Where's the signup sheet?" I joked. It felt like I was about to sign my soul to the devil, and probably was, to leave this world on the condition that I might not come back, but I was going to work hard with his gift until I didn't need it. If I got one.

The girl smiled. "I only have a simple request: tell me your name," she said lightly.

"Do you want my full name or just the first one?" I asked.

"Your full name would be nice."

"Volker Saxon," I said. "May I know yours?"

"You'll know both of ours soon enough," She said, quickly raising her arm and, before I could reach my sword again, cast a power sleep spell over me. I attempted to resist, but failed, and I fell to the ground falling asleep listening to her laugh like a higurashi.

Oh, I forgot to ask her about the scar, I thought before I drifted.


	2. Chapter 2

Volker Saxon

Something didn't feel right, but that was because within seconds of waking, I felt a very different air circulating around me. I stood, looking around, finding myself in a familiar area. Familiar? I knew this area pretty well.

I stood on an ornate forcefield-like floor and was surrounded by several pillars of stone that hovered in midair that held the Occuria. I was located in Giruvegan, holy crystal city and Mist-ridden region of the aforementioned race of higher beings.

Getting my bearings, the Occuria showed themselves, materializing from the dense Mist that themselves seemed to be the concentrated, sentient beings of.

_Hume Child,_ one of them spoke, _you do not seem to be of this Land, nor a noble or someone of equal importance. I will ask that you either state your business or leave immediately._

"It is as you say; I am not of this land, a noble nor a person of equal importance, but a traveler who was assisted by a powerful mage who sent me here for unknown reasons to do a task unknown. As I do not have any real business here, I wish to be sent back to the Warp Device," I said, cautious for sudden lightning strikes or the like. However, the weather stayed perfectly clear.

After moments of silence, the speaker broke the silence. _Your words may be lies, but your eyes tell me truth. You do not yet hold the power to wield the sky, but your soul holds the ability to do so. I will give you the power to break the nethicite ore within the Great Crystal; and if you are able to partake a piece, return here for a second examination._

They blinked out the same way they appeared. I would be amazed if this was my first time witnessing it, but even so, it was still impressive. I was contemplating the easiest way down when I remembered the Warp Device appeared after I had moved out of the middle of the platform. When it materialized, I placed my hand on it, activating it, and with an exceedingly but not blinding flash of light, I was off.

* * *

><p>"<strong>Such familiarity. Let's mix things up."<strong>

"**His knowledge base is exceedingly large for such an expansive area."**

"**He seems to have learned about this dimension through third parties, as there seems to be a easy-going understanding of this world."**

"**Let's see what his base power is. Move him from this world before he makes it back to the Guardians of the Realm. If he does, he'll collapse this world."**

"**Get on it already!"**

* * *

><p>I raced from the Warp Device to the Great Crystal Gate Stone, fearing the possibility of running into the Esper Deity Shemhazai, the Horse Goddess. Whether or not she was there, I opened the two Bulwarks Aeon and Pathos, I believe it was called, and slapped the Gate Stone.<p>

Once again, a flash of lights and a couple seconds later, I was in the Great Crystal. The walls made of shimmering crystal, thick enough to buy a small country or repair an entire mobile suit or Eva. And it was all raw Nethicite ore. However, that wasn't what I had in mind. I looked up and saw my goal: a massive chunk of Pure Nethicite, which unlike the impure ore around me, is powerful enough to light up and serve as a power base and power source for a large country for a very, very long time, unless you drained it's power too fast, which it will cause even a small piece of nethicite to create a vacuum the size of North California, and afterwards explode, creating a dead man's land for hundreds of kilometers in all directions.

I stated walking to it, the forcefields making a pathway up to it. If I had no knowledge of this land, I would get lost in an instant, and most likely will die here like everywhere else in the world.

After walking towards the Nethicite for several minutes, I was in reach of the rock when an Occurian appeared before me.

_Hume Child, I wish to ask, _it said. _What will you do with such great power?_

"I will…" I said, finding myself unable to answer.

_Pat pat, pat pat._

"I…" What would I need Nethicite for? A pure chunk at that?

_Pat pat, pat pat._

A base. If I was to survive traveling between worlds, I needed a base or foundation. "I will use the Nethicite to build a base from which," I stopped to draw my sword and spin-slashed the two creatures racing to attack me from behind, effectively knocking both off the walkway and down the shaft. "From which I can build upon to become strong to defend and attack others and myself. Except not to attack myself and unnecessarily others," I finished, stashing my sword.

_You seem to be quite skilled already with a sword, _it said.

"Not everything is a hack and slash fantasy," I retorted.

_Very well, but only a small fragment. We might need a bit in the future._

It moved to the side and I placed my hand on the rock. My hand sunk through it and I closed my hand. I felt nothing in my hand until I opened and saw a small heart-shaped fragment and a small round shard. Satisfied, the Occurian vanished.

"**Kid! Hey!" **a voice boomed from somewhere upwards. "**Could you be so kind as to put that shard down and come with me?**"

"Not likely," I said, stowing the heart-shaped shard and dashing for the lower platform. Suddenly, an elderly man in priest robes appeared on the high walkway. Turning, I held the shard out to him, and concentrating on a pulse blast, hoping for my first successful use of magic.

"**Son, I do not believe that you can truly harm me with such amateur moves. Come peacefully and join our new group as a fighter,**" the man said.

"What's the name of your group?" A faint red line appeared, orbiting around my hand, before the air around it began to warp.

"**We are known by our slogan: 'Enter the New Decree'."**

"Sorry, I don't join groups that have susceptible acronyms," I said, the red line fully visible and starting to vibrate with energy. I aimed the best I can, and with the least amount of doubt at the time, blasted the nethicite shard forward and turned back and hit the Warp Device out of here. I watched as the man effortlessly dodge the nethicite shard and laugh.

"**You missed! Your only shot and you missed!**"

"Hey, I know I missed you, but if I did hit you it would only be for bonus points," I said as the flying nethicite shard smashed right into the pure nethicite chunk.

"**Bonus points? What else is-" **he said, looking back and stopping when he saw the erupting mass of nethicite. I saw a horrified look on his face before I warped out. With a massive piece of nethicite setting off a chain reaction, I dashed without worrying about saving some energy left for the return trip, since there would be none.

However, once I reopened the Pathos Bulwark, I had another visitor. It was the Woman with the scar. Only without the scar this time.

"You've made quite a mess, but I'm willing to overlook this is your willing to join us," she said.

"And who are you again?" I asked, not ready for another END personnel.

"I belong to a service known as NMend, or 'No More of the END'. We are a service created to stop all of END's malicious deeds and whims. I cannot guarantee your safety, and will not comfort you if something causes you to weep. The choice is yours."

"Like I said, where do I sign?" I asked, restating my earlier question.

"Good answer. Judging from the destruction you are causing, I know that I have found a good third wheel," She said, summoning a traveling portal. "You first."

Obeying, I entered the portal and started the first chapter of my new life. Or third if one is literal about this.


	3. Chapter 3

Volker

The portal took me back to my house, and I heard the front door closing. I checked the time to see that it was eleven-fifteen, right before I left. The woman exited the portal after me, then lowered her hood and fluffed out her hair.

"Why did we all agree on a uniform?" she complained, unzipping the robe to reveal to me and to remind her that she wasn't wearing anything else. Catching herself, she turned around blushing, before zipping it back up and looked back at me. "Do you have some clothes I could borrow?" she asked.

"Top left for shirts, one down and right for underwear, and bottom right for PJ's," I told her.

"Thanks," she said timidly, entering my room. I went up the stairs and grabbed something to drink and went back down to see if she had found my clothes just fine. I knocked on the door, and I heard her gasp for a moment, then she opened the door. She had yet to put on a shirt after taking off her robe, which was my MegaTokyo one, so she held the shirt up to cover her chest, but she had put on the Pj bottoms at least.

I entered the room but didn't look at her as she put the shirt on, during which I opened the window and let the cool air enter the room. My sister was at Basic and AIT, military stuff and I was here, in my room with a half-naked girl in the middle of the night.

"Umm, I'm sorry that I don't have permission to introduce myself fully yet, but I go by Athena," the woman said, a slight nervous tone in her voice. "I'm just really a grunt witch, although I don't really cast curses, so I wouldn't consider myself one."

"Can you throw magic missiles?" I asked, turning to her as she finished putting it on.

"Oh, yeah! I can do that!" Athena agreed.

"Then if you won't be called a witch then I'll use my term for you: a mage."

"Mage? Isn't that like a divinity priest that can purify people?"

"Not by my definition. That would be just a priest, depending on what they use."

"I see," she said ambiguously. "Then what would you say a warlock is?"

"Mage that specializes in demonic magic."

"Sorcerer, witch, druid," she listed, trying to test my vocabulary.

"Sorcerers is black magic specialist, Witches are curse makers, and Druids would specialize in nature-based spells," I told her, trying to remember all the definitions I had thought out.

"Have you heard of a Red Mage?" she asked, sitting on the bed.

I leaned on the window, thinking about my video games. "I guess a red mage would be one who utilizes both weapons and magic, but train more in the arcane skill rather than weapons, like a battle mage, but those try to be even in both aspects."

She looked away, defeated, at my alarm clock and jumped up, as it read 12:38. "Oh no! I'm late!" she shouted, beginning to panic. She grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the room and back to the portal. I grabbed her robe on the way, and was plunged into the darkness of it.

"Wait!" I called but she didn't slow down. I caught my feet on the ground and tried to drag this incredibly strong girl to a slower pace, but she would have none of it. "Hold on!"

"What? We're late! We don't have time to slow down!" Athena cried. "Oh, I'm so going to be in trouble!"

I gave up trying to tell her that my alarm clock was nearly an hour ahead of actual time and let her drag me through the corridor. Soon, we emerged in a wide, dark room where three people in hooded robes of similar designs to Athena's.

"The situation with Oni Getsu is getting worse. He's reforged his Damascus Cleaver and had-" one of them, a man, cut himself off as we entered, and looked toward us. He didn't have his hood up, but I still couldn't see his face very well, and he turned back and nodded to the others and blinked out. Another blinked after him, leaving the last of them alone.

"Athena, you're unusually early," she said, removing her hood. "I see your friend remembered your coat. Did he treat you well?"

"Oh!" Athena said, remembering her coat. She turned to me and I handed it to her. The woman was older, nearly twice as old as Athena and I, and held a strict gaze.

"No, we didn't do anything," I told the blonde woman. She had long hair, but normal length long hair, not Athena's ridiculously long silver hair.

"I see. I'd hate for you to be attacked by her significant other," the woman joked. "But more importantly, for all that I can see, you are equipped like a beginner. Athena, I will have you track down your partner from some years back and bring them here like I asked. As for you young man," she said to me, her gaze turning from a friend to a strict mentor as she looked at me. "I will ask you your name and to show me everything you have while Athena is out."

The woman looked at her and nodded, and Athena opened and entered the portal. I turned toward the woman and took off my bag. Placing it down on the ground, I opened the top when the woman walked up to me and grabbed it. She threw it into the air, letting everything fly out. I backed up and tried to think what was most important that I needed to catch when I noticed my items merely hovered down and organized itself in front of her.

She's a powerful mage, I thought, watching as she looked everything over, the bag open to her side. "What's this? And these?" she asked, bringing the nethicite shard, my Last Luck charm and one of my custom designed t-shirts. She pushed everything else aside and brought them before her.

"Nethicite, my Last Luck charm and the Last Luck rune," I told her, pointing to the heart shard, rune and t-shirt that had the rune on it in turn. The Last Luck Rune was a six-pointed star that had all six points connected like an infinite loop and not the Star of David like most people pointed and asked about.

"Last Luck, I see. Did Saikun give you this?" she asked.

"Saikun? No, I drew it a long time ago and used it for D&D every now and then," I told her. "Who's Saikun?"

"Never mind then. D&D you say, what was its magical property?"

"If I failed a roll that had a –10 or more save bonus, I got a second save with the bonus cut in half. It helped a lot, but like most skill games, it didn't always work, and it had to charge every now and then, and if I didn't specifically have it on me, it didn't work."

"I like your DM. Do you think you can introduce him to me?" she asked.

"Sorry, but he's dead, and the group broke up after a few more games, so I don't know if any of them are still around," I told her, feeling sullen after remembering that. It was the reason I almost gave up on school, as well as his girlfriend committing suicide. To be honest, he was the reason that Heleaven still exists in my mind today. I created the basis for the town and he used it in our games.

"Do you remember his name?" the woman pressed.

"Criss Diller," I told her. She nodded thoughtfully before turning back to the items she had hovering around her. She systematically put each object into my bag from least to greatest importance, which meant clothes then smaller items, then finally the two stones. But then she brought out the nethicite shard again.

"May I ask where this came from?" she asked, holding it out.

"Ivalice, in the holy crystal city of Giruvegan. You want me to return it?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yes! This thing is exceedingly dangerous!" she said dramatically. She half threw it and I caught it as it hovered toward me.

"We're back!" Athena's disembodied voice rang out suddenly. The woman quickly threw her hood on, allowing her long hair to bundle up the back, before reaching into her hood and correcting that. The familiar portal appeared and out came Athena and a confused young girl, timidly following her speedy friend.

They looked me and the hooded figure over and then moved next to me, and looked up at me shyly. She was about a couple of feet shorter than I was, although right now I was actually the tallest in the dark room that I could see, blonde that was almost a compromise in length between Athena and the Elder.

"My name is Ashley…ian Piren," the girl said, possibly confused on whether she should shorten her name or not.

"Volker Saxon, not exactly with the other two yet," I said, and Ash slowly leaned onto me.

"Volker, Ashleyian, I have a certain task for you, a beginning mission of sorts," the Elder began, not caring to watch us further unease each other. "Besides returning the nethicite shard, there is a winged demon roaming around on the lands that you got the nethicite from. Should the End find out about this demon, they will try to get their hands on it and add it amongst its legion. Athena, you will go with them to ensure safety. Also try to not earn a Mark. We don't need another strike against us."

"Another Mark? Can you explain some things?" I asked.

"If you interfere with one world's order using a tool from another world that would cause a large change, like a rocket launcher in the time of the Romans. You'll get a Mark of Trespass somewhere on your body or equipment. While we still don't know what the significance of these Marks is, we would like the minimal amount until we do. Like for instance your Last Luck rune possibly bears Saikun's Mark."

"Saikun?" Ash asked.

"Another Elder," I explained.

"We are not Elders!" the woman yelled. "We are Directors! Get it right!"

"Elder sounds better," Athena put in, finding a place to join in on this conversation.

The woman turned angrily at her, but then blew it off and walked off, leaving the three of us to ourselves. She summoned a portal that had different runes than Athena and walked through.

I looked at Athena and she and Ash looked toward me, expecting me to lead. "Lets get going," I suggested, and Ash looked away.

"Idiot," she muttered. I looked up at Athena and she shrugged. This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

Athena raised her arm and summoned the familiar rune portal, however, after seeing the Elder's portal, this one had more of a sloppy, deliberate design to it. "You go first, Volker. You know where we're going," she told me.

Ash stepped away from me and waited for me to enter the portal, which I did. Before I did so, I looked at Athena and told her, "You're going to have to teach me one day how to make portals and the such."

She smirked. "We'll see."

I shared that moment of spite, then turned and walked through the portal to the familiar lands of Ivalice, with the two of them behind me.

?

"Come and join us, Aerossi! We're just like you!" the daemon called from the ground, beckoning me with random hand gestures. We were, in fact, both daemons now, except he was perfectly fine with it. I wasn't.

I merely looked at him, content on just sitting there and not spreading my wings to go down and slash at him to bits. Sooner or later though, someone was going to pass by and disrupt the trap just out of my line of sight down in the canyon. That was when I planned to fly down there and strike him down and get out of here. The daemon could not fly like me, nor could his friends, but they had the advantage of human looks and projectile weapons.

I felt the wind through my muddy, smoking wings his friends had engineered to my back that had popped up some feathers on the side of my face. I had escaped them twice, when I got the 'upgrades' and when I tried to enter town afterwards. The guards must still be having nightmares.

Fortunately, I had used my time without them knowing where I was and this wide open landscape to practice and master flying, although judgment calls are still being worked on. I had been discovered by him when I landed and had yet to look around, and when he had called me out, I flew around blindly and ended up in this trap. I was too high up on the cliff for him to reach me, and I couldn't fly upwards as a fleet of wyrmkin that had yet to notice me flew around above, playing around and otherwise catching birds to munch on.

So, the only thing I could do was watch the guy down there with my advanced eyesight and draw in the dirt with the billhook I had plucked from a nearby farm.

What was a daemon? A human turned partially into a demon. That's all. I was a winged terror in the sky that had human thoughts and dreams, but apparently not without a rampant want for the death of all humans and living creatures other than my own kind.

This was so. Incredibly. Ridiculous.


	4. Chapter 4

Volker

We arrived at the Nalbina Teleport Crystal, so we merely got a simple look over and a grunt about our outlandish clothes rather than our sudden appearance. I haven't changed, and Ash wore a simple dress shirt and skirt, which appeared to come from seventeen or eighteen years ago, like 1994-ish styled clothes. Athena took the cake with the MegaTokyo shirt and baggy, plaid wool PJs, and the NMend robe, which made her look even more displaced.

I looked around to see if there was something to tell me which country was in occupancy of the fort, when I saw two Arcadian guards still posted by the path to the Mosphoran High Waste. I walked over to them and thought quickly how to word my question.

"May I be reminded when Vayne's inauguration is?" I asked.

"It's going on right now, you fool. Why, a bit displaced?" the guard taunted.

"Yeah, ya need to hurry on back there if you want to see His Royal Majesty."

"I see. Just a word told to me by bird: the sewers attract more than just rats this time of year. Just saying," I told him coolly, before turning back and rejoining my partners.

"What are you doing? Trying to tempt the guard?" Athena said, half caring to let me speak. "Anyway, where do we go from here?"

"Southwest, through the desert and canyon," I told her, and then started walking down the path. Ash, who had stayed at my side when I returned, walked carefully, as not to get sand in her shoes.

"Canyon? There's going to be thieves in there," I heard Athena say, before she noticed that we had left her. "Hey, jackasses! Wait up!" she yelled, running to our side. "Couldn't ya wait up for me?"

"Possibly," I told her. I looked at her and she gave me a dark look. "Maybe should have. But anyway, we can't attract too much attention in one spot. We look like rich people in comparison to the stranglers here. Take the PJ bottoms. High quality wool that would be only passed up in our world because there is more and more of the stuff. This place isn't like that. They don't have the right equipment to make consistently good quality wool thread, and there really isn't enough raw wool going through the system to make the looms constantly spin thread."

"Fine, fine, teacher. Just wait up next time," she said, looking away and puffing up her nose. I turned back to the road and saw a blockade made of both soldiers and what bordered on humanoids. Athena saw it too. "Demons? No, they're at least partially human, so that would make them daemons."

"Daemons?" I asked, not sure what her definition for the term was.

"Yeah, humans that have been given demonic powers. Most of them are recruited by the End, but luckily not all. What are they doing here?" she wondered.

The group stood around holding spears and crossbows and had built a fortified wall with large stones that was only getting bigger. As we walked by, I looked past the fortification and saw a male daemon calling out to a… winged person that was boredly watching him, crouching in a cubby hole fiddling with a wood chopper.

I slowed my step watching them have the one-sided interaction when a soldier came and called for the soldiers here to come with him, for there were assassins in the sewers. Hesitantly, the soldiers headed out, dropping rocks and what they were doing to go assist with the sewer problem.

I have to thank you, Princess Ashe.

The daemons tried to call the soldiers back, to no avail. The male daemon worriedly called out to the avian one last time, and it stood up and flew down to hack the guy apart. I backed away from the site, when I noticed that Athena and Ash had gone up ahead. The avian landed and spun around, making sure that he was dead, before turning and seeing me. I took a step back, reaching for my sword.

"Volker!" Athena called out, finally noticing that I had been left behind. The avian looked over at the two girls running towards us, then looking back surprised.

"Vfolkerr?" the avian spoke roughly, before flying away with a horrified look.

I watched it fly away through the canyons, looking back at me with a saddened expression on its face. Did it know me?

"Volker! Are you okay? Did it do something to you head?" Athena asked, shaking me out of my reverie.

"What? Oh, no. she didn't do anything," I said, looking at her and checking on Ash. Neither one was hurt, but they were worried about me.

"She? That thing is a girl?" she asked, surprised.

"That thing is mostly human, or rather a hume girl that was experimented on. The End can do that, right?" I wondered aloud, asking for a bit of info.

"Yeah… let's leave it at that. The End can do much worse than that, but that's for another time," Athena said, trying to drag me onward. I looked back toward the way the avian flew off before turning back to my party and walking on. The daemons had phased out to where ever they went by then.

Next time, I'll get a better look and find out who she is. Maybe she'll tell me a bit about why she didn't attack me.

Aerossi

Volker, my darling. I almost struck you down before you could be with me, how awful. You disappeared the first day, and when you came back you hugged me like we were more and remembered to bring the game you promised. I played it until the title screen and then called you. This was why you were away, why you couldn't tell me what happened to you. I'd slap you for telling me this would happen to me, not knowing that you wouldn't have lied. You never told me anything, because it'd break both of our hearts.

I have to return and thank him one day for freeing me from the guards and daemon. I flew on until I was over the savannah area and went south, passing over large glowing boulders. I saw some native kids as I was passing over one and slowed down and landed on it. I heard that they were talking about messing with two beast men that were walking around.

I stood to jump down and stop them when one of them picked up a stick and threw it at one. The beast man turned, hearing the young man's grunt, and the stick hit him in the forehead. The other boy ran for it, before returning and getting his friend. When they passed the boulder I was standing on, the boy who threw the stick tripped and scrapped his leg, making his escape much slower.

The beast man turned back to his partner and called for him, who promptly picked up a very big sword and chased after the boys. Seeing that they wouldn't be able to escape the men, I waited until the men were close to the boulder to attack, jumping up in the air and used aerial maneuvers to attack and dodge them. After a few swings, I looked back at the boys and saw they were gone. That was all good, until the one with the large sword tried his luck at me.

I narrowly dodged, and he growled in anger. He took a pouch from his loins and popped it into his mouth. After a moment and he looked at me with much more feral eyes. I flapped my wings to get higher into the air, but he then threw his sword at me, smacking me in my face with the handle. I twisted in midair and felt the blade graze my wings before sailing through the air. The wind that was displaced because of the sword sucked me harshly toward it, and I flapped my wings trying to straighten out, but I inevitably crashed into the ground.

I looked up to see another humanoid standing over me, this one with a hawk's face but also had horns, and I struggled to get to my feet, but my arms gave way to the shaking as the beast men ran after their sword, on the other side of me. I struggled to my knees, hoping the third beast man doesn't realize that I'm at its mercy.

Unable to get onto my feet, I crawled away, looking back once toward the twin beast men running at me. Volker, don't let me die like this.

Volker

The gate to and from the Estersand were locked, due to trouble in the sewers and a rebel attack, so we were turned away.

"We're stronger than a couple of guards! And even if they summon more, we have numbers!" Athena tried to urge me. I saw the guards give us looks, and I grabbed her arm and dragged her away. "Hey! Let go!"

"Shut the hell up!" I snapped at her. "They are the occupying force here! Don't fukk with them unless you want to go to Nalbina!"

"Maybe you do," one of the guards said, approaching us. "Tell me, has that man killed the demon in the canyons yet? It's getting late and I want my share of the bill."

"Bill?" I asked him, surprised.

"Yeah, that demon is a mark. Ya know what a mark is, right? Names Aerossi Mega-something. Showed up few days ago and been causing trouble since. Looks like a nice sweet girl 'til she bares her fangs and eats your heart out," he said, Athena and Ash looking disgusted. They must have bought his story, but I felt a bit different.

"Aerossi, huh? Sounds like a swell girl," I said playing along.

"Anyway, shoo. Be off before I interrogate you further," he said, waving for us to leave.

"What's your name?" I asked, curious.

"Baron, what'sit to you?" he asked.

"Nothing," I told him, before turning around. "Mine's Volker. Hope to see you around some time." I walked back away from the gate, until Athena stopped me again.

"Why didn't you do anything?" she asked.

"One, I did, and two," I said, looking at the darkened sky. "That," I pointed out, and she looked up. just in time to, as the Ifrit appeared overhead, led by several troop transporters.

"What...?" she asked, standing rigid in fear. Ash ran to my chest and attempted to hide.

"Airships, or to be more specific, the Dreadnought Ifrit and her troops," I explained.

"How are you not scared by all this?" she asked, exasperated.

"Because we're in good hands." I put my arms around the shaking Ash, who muttered a curse at both of us, her for being scared and relying on a guy to protect her, and at me for being too stupid to be scared.

"Whatever you say." Athena looked around before sitting down. "Well, Mr. know it all, where is the inn?"

"I'm afraid there isn't one. We'll have to go into Lowtown before it gets too dark," I said, not wanting to test the monsters of the night. I patted Ash and she grabbed my arm, and we walked on, Athena jumping up and keeping pace with me.

"So, where's this Lowtown?" she asked. The ground shook as the fighting grew more and more violent.

"Under the city, a long way down. if we circumnavigate around to the South Gate, as we're at the Eastern Gate, we'll be able to go there directly. Although, judging by the amount of light we have, there just isn't enough time to get there without fighting."

"Fighting? I only really have spells and this weird outfit and you have a sword, how the hell are we going to fight?" Athena complained.

"That's simple. I have a sword and you have spells. I'm sure we can make it by dawn," I said, not wanting to be delayed any further.

"What about Ash? How is she going to protect herself?"

"We'll pick up some weapons on the way, but for now we're going to protect her. After all, how old is she? Twelve?"

"Fourteen," Ash corrected me.

"Still, for now we'll protect you. Fourteen? I'm seventeen, and…" I motioned to Athena, as we stepped onto the desert sands of the Dalmascan Estersand.

"Nine hundred-sixty eight," she told me, and I looked at her surprised. "What? Did you expect me to say twenty-two?"

"Nah, I just didn't expect you to say one thousand," I said, downplaying it.

"I didn't say one thousand!" she protested. "Anyway, I see wolves and cactites, so we should probably focus on them."

Indeed, the creatures started to emerge from their dens for a late night run. Although I didn't need to worry about the cactites, the wolves came in packs, and I didn't think that Athena was skilled at melee, much less Ash.

"Stay back and heal," Athena told her.

"Okay," Ash said, moving next to Athena.

"She's a healer?" I asked her, looking at the young girl.

"Surprisingly efficient one too. Wouldn't have lasted this long without her."

I nodded, then turned back around toward the prowling wolves. I drew my sword and made sure that the two of them were still in eye sight. They put me in between themselves and the wolves, before the wolves picked up on my scent.

The approached me before circling to pick out a weak spot, growling to intimidate. My head began to plan and noticed the one on my right would encounter the two spell casters if I let it, so I targeted that one and rushed it. The other two flinched as their partner brawled briefly with me, before they both charged at me.

I readied myself, when a familiar bolt of lightening struck the one on my far left and electrocuted him. The one remaining lunged at me but bit down on my sword and broke a tooth before I threw him off me and he fled. The two dead wolf bodies clouded up and puffed into smoke, before a small pouch appeared where they were.

I picked up on of the pouches and Athena claimed the other, and we received a couple of wind stones, a dagger and a pointy hat. A curious look from Athena made me shrug, since I didn't know how to explain random drops in the fantasy world. I handed the dagger to Ash, who stashed it in her dress before closing in on my arm again.

I saw some cactites but left them alone, as we weren't getting any swords unless one of us knew the Steal Technick. It seemed that Licenses didn't apply to us yet, as Athena put the hat on without problems.

"Fit okay?" I asked her, and she nodded. I hope it did, since it didn't come off for the rest of the trip over to the South Gate.


	5. Chapter 5

Athena

Everything that came out of his mouth sounded like street talk, and his idea that we'd be just fine sleeping in the technical sewer system that ran under the town was just ridiculous enough to seem workable. Everyone calls it Lowtown, I call it a sewer.

The only difference between our opinions stemmed from the fact there was another level to this city, which was the proper sewer named Garamscythe Waterway.

"Yeah, Volker, I think we'd have a better location out in the plains," I complained. "This Lowtown of yours seems a bit, dark and dainty."

"You say that, lady, but you'll find that if you mind your business like your friends there, this place is somewhat radiant compared to the plains at night," a peddler told me, some kind of reptilian humanoid wearing a mask that hid his eyes.

"Noted," I told him, half-caring. He turned back to his work with a grunt, waving me off. I turned back and ran to catch up with Volker and Ash, who couldn't wait up for the life of them, dodging a sprinting soldier or two.

Volker

The quakes faded, becoming more and more separated in frequency. Soon, a dull thud announced the last of the rebellion upstairs. Soldiers swarmed here and there, staying in the middle of the road when possible, pushing everyone else to the sides. I walked toward the back, where a crowd was gathering.

As I was taller than the average man here, I simply looked over the crowd's heads to see the line up of skypirates that consisted of Vaan, Balthier, Fran, and Ashe, or Amelia for now. I watched until Penelo ran up to Vaan and Balthier stepped in between and pulled his stunt.

"What's going on?" Ash asked, trying to get a glance.

"Skypirates," I told her, before Athena caught up to us.

"Should I ask?" she questioned, and I shrugged.

"Not our story," I told her, and she glanced over as well, before finding that she got left behind yet again.

"Would it kill you to wait?" she asked, irritated. "I mean, do you just give half-assed answers to your friends back home and walk away like a messenger? Seriously now."

"You could also be moving while you say your snarky comments," Ash defended me, and I looked down at her. "And pay attention so you don't get left behind."

Athena stopped and looked at her, and we kept going. I found a place where we could hit for the rest of the night, though there wasn't much to call a night. People around the area were sleeping, and a couple of people were watching over the group.

"You here for sleep? You guys look like wealthy kids that just returned from adventuring," one of them said.

"Yeah, but we got lost out in the desert and hoped that we could stay here for the night," I admitted, half lying. He looked us over again, and then turned to his buddy briefly before telling us to be quiet and careful not to step on anyone's toes. "Thanks," I said, then took a handful of wolf pelts and handed them to him before going to sit down.

Ash cuddled next to me and Athena sat on the other side of her, then stared forward blankly. If we weren't in a foreign land and in one of our houses, this would feel like a sleep over gone wrong.

"Athena," I said, and she turned toward me. "What do you think was up with that avian Aerossi that the End was willing to send out a daemon to recruit her?"

Athena looked forward, and for a moment I thought she'd just ignore me, but then she looked down in thought, then back at me. "The End is always looking for newer and stronger creatures to recruit, and they probably just heard about this one. Although I wouldn't put it past Ezashin to pull stunts like this, it doesn't seem that he has the advantage with this one."

"Ezashin?"

"Leveah Ezashin, the End's founder and leader, and a very, very powerful ascended demon that enjoys fiddling with everything around him and then destroying it. One of his favorite hobbies is to mess with peoples heads. He assumes the appearance of a large business man in a suit with a warped face, and uses iron knuckles and a form of punching martial arts, though that's the only time he's actually fightable, though he isn't really suited to fight as a human compared to his demon side."

"Long history?" I guessed.

"With me, Ash, Hannah, and Cynthia, though Saikun seems to have traded bouts with him as well," Athena told me, not caring to explain anyone else.

"Are there any actual pure demons in the End?"

"Of course, that's how they produce daemons so readily."

The conversation dropped then, and we fell asleep. Ash was already deeply napping at that point, so there wasn't really any complaints when Athena leaned over and used her as a pillow until the following morning.

Aerossi

I awoke on hard dirt with my hands bound with branches or something. I opened my eyes to see that the sky was laden with dark gray clouds, that I had been stripped and dressed in Indian drab, and I had been relocated to a native village. I saw the beast man from earlier standing guard, still as a statue.

"Hey," I called. He didn't move.

I shuffled out of the fetal position and found that I could stand up, although I couldn't fully stand, more like half-crouch. He still didn't move.

"Hey," I called out again, but this time instead of him moving, I heard a shuffling sound to my left. I looked to see the man standing shocked before running away, dropping some strange fruit. I looked back to the man standing stiff to see that his was made of carefully worked wood.

Soon, the village was up and I could see several of the beast men running toward me, armed with more than pointed sticks and stones. A chill ran down my spine quickly and I stood all the way up, breaking the binds on my hands. Thoughts were flowing into my head and I instinctively jumped into the air.

What was I doing? I covered my face and pulled my legs up towards my body. A rope wrapped itself around my leg and tried to pull me down roughly.

"NO!" I yelled, flapping hard, pulling the person on the ground upward. The tension increased and I pressed harder, but the rope snapped and sent me flying upwards with no control. I covered my head as I crashed down in brush and rolled to a stop, cutting and scraping me.

I tried to get up as I saw the men enter the brush and grabbed me, and held their swords and spears to me. I spat out mud and plants that had entered my mouth on the faulty crash. The people constricted my wrists and bound my wings, before leading me uphill, to a large tent.

I saw the Elder of the village and they put me on the ground, before whispering him and leaving. I moved onto my knees and looked at the Elder, his make up much larger than the other beast men. I looked around the place as the Elder stared coldly into the fire burning before him.

Slowly, he turned toward me and regarded me with no reaction. "A young hume? What manner have you with such a body? Are you not satisfied with your cities of stone that overshadow those who live in the dark?"

"No, it's not like that! A group of demons kidnapped me from my home and-"

"Nonsense. Demons are creatures that are summoned, therefore you'd have asked them away from your home."

"No! I don't come from here! I don't belong on this world!" I protested.

"Are you implying that humes have created advanced enough tools to challenge His dominion?"

"NO! NO! I'm saying that I was kidnapped from my world and brought to this one by demons that can cross over-"

"Hume child, such fantasies are best forgotten. They can bend your mind so many ways. I will allow you to leave this village with your tools and your life, but do not come back."

I stared at his unchanging face, shocked into disbelief. This wasn't right. A beast man grabbed my binds and lifted me up, and I was led outside. They gave me my clothes before leading me to the field outside and handing me the billhook. Without so much a farewell, the beast man waved me off and walked back into the village.

I waited until he was about of sight before heading off, disposing of a couple large of black birds that attacked me on the path. The feathers on my face wavered slightly, and I looked back to see a ball of energy with the wind blowing around it. I felt it stare at me for a moment, then it turned black and the area around it started to quickly decay.

I backed up, not wanting to get caught in the aura of the orb. However, within seconds, the ball collapsed in on itself and the orb floated there for a moment before being snatched out of the air by a woman with the similar drag that the daemon from earlier wore. And it was confirmed that she was also a daemon when she looked at me with the same amber eyes as the man.

"You wanted that? Too bad, you're too slow getting it. Name's Sonia Diller, ex-leader of the Black Fang and second in command of the End Company," she told me. "What's your name? You seem like a new recruit, or bad experiment on the run."

"A-Aerossi Megalith," I told her, taking a step back. "Is the End… Co. entirely made of daemons?"

"Not entirely, but mainly. Aerossi, right? You have someone you care about much?" she asked, biting the black orb. She noticed me looking at it and offered. I refused. "All mine then," she said, eating the rest of it.

"Y-Yes, his name is Volker," I answered her hesitantly.

"Is he around here somewhere?" she asked, licking her lips.

"No, last I saw him he was at the new empire's city."

"So you are new. The city up north in the desert? The city's called Rabanastre and the Empire that's now occupying it is Arcadia. Oh, before we head over there, we might want to hide those wings of yours," Sonia told me.

_Squawk! _I saw another one of those birds headed toward us and readied my billhook. Sonia saw it as well, and with a flick of her wrist changed into a skimpy leather skirt and jacket, and summoned a cannon in the shape of a common gun. She aimed and fired at the bird, and it burst into flames.

"One nuisance down," Sonia said relieved, switching back as I stared in horror where the bird was moments ago. "You'll get used to it. Things like this happen everyday, so we have to really care about how much ammo we're using," she told me, not realizing that I didn't care about the weapon as much as the amount of overkill she just exported.

Volker

I entered the magick shop and looked around to see that there were a few others in the store, so it might make for an interesting stop. Athena took Ash to get us something to eat while I went to get something to use other than my sword, namely a healing and medical spell. I walked up to the clerk and she turned to greet me.

"Welcome to Yugri's Magciks. How may I feed your arcane need?" she asked.

"I'm looking for a few spells to help me on my way, but I still need to turn in my loot from adventuring. Do you think you can help me?" I asked.

"Sure. Let's take a look at what you have," she said. I opened my bag and put my sword down against the counter, since it was using the closed flap to my bag to hold it there, and started taking out the five earth magicite stones, two wolf pelts and a handful of drab wool and put them on the counter.

"That makes 508 gil," she said, handing over a card-like trinket shaped like a turtle shell that had a small strip of runes on one side. "And about those spells, I'm sure we have them in stock." Yugri went into the back of the store, and then came back a few moments later with a stack of papers that she placed on the counter.

"Which one do you want?" she asked, prompting me to look at them. I was beginning to lean over to look when someone patted me on the shoulder, making me look over and see the young man from the NMend hub.

"Yo, Volker. You can wait up sometimes, you know," the blue-haired boy said friendly. He wore a coat with the design of Athena's robe, black with blue trimming, and he must be Saikun as I saw the blue six-pointed star insignia displayed over his heart.

"Sorry, Sai. Couldn't help myself," I played along.

"Anyway, you forgot the list, although at least you remembered the basic healing spells," he said, pulling out a piece of parchment and handing it to Yugri, who looked it over and gave Saikun a curious look before returning to the back to collect the items.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"The older Ash asked me to get some stuff for you," he said vaguely.

"The older Ash? Was she the one that sent us here and you left behind?" I asked.

"Yeah, she didn't introduce herself? Silly woman. Anyway, didn't she come with you?" he asked.

"No, only the younger of the two."

"They're both the same person, you know, only that the younger is about seventeen or eighteen years younger," he told me, and I gave him a curious look, but he turned toward the counter as Yugri returned.

"Here's the stuff you wanted, right?" Yugri asked him, giving him the parchment to check over the pages. He sorted through them and came across one and set it apart from the others, before taking out his turtle shell trinket and handing her the pages he still had. "Are you still getting Flare?" she asked, pointing toward the page he had put down.

"Yeah, I just need to do these first," Saikun told her.

"Okay, whatever you want," she sighed and took the stack. "This is 15600 gil altogether. Do you still want all of this?"

"Yep," Saikun said, and Yugri moved a rune over the papers and strip and handed him his trinket. "Hold these," Saikun said, handing me the papers. He then picked the Flare paper up and handed it to Yugri, who ringed him up.

"Anything else I can get for you?" she asked him, but he shook his head. I picked up my wooden sword and resheathed it in my bag, and put the magick papers into the outside pocket.

"Nope, that should do it," Saikun said, and we left the store. "Hey, Volker, right? Meet me in the Bazaar, okay? I've got a few more things to get." He gave me a smile and walked off, disappearing into the crowd.

I took my time walking over to the bazaar in Rabanastre, the ex-capital city of Dalmasca, enjoying the sights. Airships passed by overhead, although I couldn't see the Strahl. Probably because they were still working their way back from Nalbina.

I saw children running around, picking the pockets of the unwary, making me place my hand on my bag.

"Hey, kid," a woman called to me, grabbing my shoulder. I turned around and brushed her off, to see that the woman had the eyes of a demon and she had a cloaked companion, who's partially visible face told me that it was Aerossi. "Ya know a guy named Volk? I have something to say to him."

The woman was about my height, short black hair and golden yellow eyes and wore a outfit resembling Tifa's, along with a hand cannon gently tapping her hip.

"He's me, although I'm not coming with you," I said, drawing my sword. The woman smile and reached for her gun. I looked past her and saw Athena and Ash sprinting behind the woman, and I could hear them shouting.

"Volker! Run!"


	6. Chapter 6

I heard Athena shout at me and spun and did what she told me to do, run away.

"Get back here, you puss!" the woman shouted after me, but I did not slow down. In fact, I sped up, before being slowed down by traffic. I managed to make it to the stairs part of the bazaar before I had to catch my breath. I hoped that I had at least lost her enough.

I looked around to make sure that I was alone then headed up the steps. However…

_Click_. "Feeling brave, punk?" the woman asked rhetorically, resting the barrel of a gun on the back of my neck. "Name's Sonia Diller, your new fukking boss. Aerossi, here!"

I looked back to see Sonia flick her eyes back and forth between Aerossi and me as she approached, before the familiar face of Saikun appeared with Athena in tow and tackled Sonia off of me before she could react. Sonia half break-danced back onto her feet before Saikun pinned her up against the wall and kept her there with his custom blade.

It had a long blade that curved outward, making a semi-hook. The handle had a wide and spiked hand guard that was black-gray, contrasting with the gleaming silver of the blade. "Sonia, I suggest that you leave," Saikun suggested.

"Hey! Get off of her!" a guard called, running up to us. Saikun dug into his pockets and tossed some gil coins at him, which the guard caught and turned to break up the crowd that was forming. "Go on! Nothing to see here!"

"I thought you were a hero," Sonia remarked.

"Something's aren't so bright behind the light," he countered. Sonia chuckled before reaching over and tearing a rift in the wall and leaving through that. Before the rift closed, Saikun waved his hand over it and closed it up.

"Let's get out of here for the time being," I suggested as Athena and Ash caught up to us. I put my sword back into my bag as Saikun sheathed his own and explained what happened to the two girls in the simplest way. I turned and the group walked away from the scene.

Once in the far northern part of the North End, we stopped to share our supplies and other info we had gathered. Saikun gave the Flare sheet to Athena and took the other papers from me, then handed us the curaga and warp pages to share amongst the three of us, esuna to me to read and give to Ash, drain to read and give to Athena, and float to keep. He handed regen to Athena to read and give to Ash, and syphon to Athena to keep.

From his hammerspace, he brought out and gave an iron sword to me, a bronze shield to Athena and Ash, and gave a javelin to Ash as well. He also handed out two sets of gauntlets to Ash and me and a rose corsage to Athena.

"I see I can always break the silence now," she joked as we geared up, and the group shared a curious laugh. The weapons came with their own straps and sheaths, so we didn't have to find someone to make them. Me and Ash high-five'd each other in our new gauntlets, and found that they were really comfortable.

"How much do we owe you?" I asked Saikun, but he shook his head.

"Don't worry about it for now," he said. "Just get over to Giruvegan and then we'll deal with all this." He turned to leave before turning back and saying one last thing. "Keep track of the nethicite shard. No one wants another Nabradia."

I watched after him, recalling that memory. "Nabradia? Which kingdom was that?" Athena asked, turning toward Ash, who shrugged.

"It was a kingdom to the north that was destroyed by a magical nuclear explosion inside of it during the battle between it and Arcadia. It's a necropolis now, and will be for a considerable amount of time," I explained, walking on.

"A necropolis? Wow, didn't think it could get much worse," Athena commented.

"Shut up," Ash told her, then hurried to catch up to me.

Aerossi

I hurried back to South Gate when Sonia chased after Volker, then onto the plains before ditching the cloak and taking to the air. The cool breeze felt nice after being covered up by the suffocating cloak, and with this wide open savannah sparse with people I could fly nearly endlessly and free.

I flew over the village toward the center of the area, spying the activities of the nomads that inhabited it. The young boy had managed to return to the village okay, although he was still put to work. I didn't see Sonia anywhere, or anymore daemons, so I flew around, feeling the breeze. I landed on one of the boulders and looked toward town to see Volker and his crew leaving. I jumped down and walked over, but the older of the two girls spotted me first and threw a lightening bolt at my feet silently.

"Volk!" I called anyway, and he quickly turned toward me, looking around to see if there was anyone else around.

Volker

I drew my sword and approached her and motioned for Ash and Athena to stay put. Aerossi stood in a clearing, although I could not be certain that she was entirely alone. Aerossi was a girl about my age, although from the added features I couldn't tell exactly how old she was, but that didn't matter.

She had sand-brown medium length hair and the amber eyes that the daemons had, though they had discolored into blue on the right where feathers were poking out of her face. She wore an orange vest and dark gray skirt, and similar colored thigh-high socks and black padded boots. At her side was a higurashian (go Google it) billhook, slightly dirty from use.

She had dark gray and blue wings on her back with several smoke-like lines emitting from them, and a patch of the same feathers on the side of her face next to her right eye. Whoever did this to her will pay if she so commands.

"Aerossi," I called back, stopping and reaching out to her. I lowered my sword and looked into her eyes. This reminded me of Riku and Sora, except that I won't give into evil. She met my eyes, then walked over and placed her hand on mine, and I brought her close, embracing her. "How do you know me?" I asked, letting go.

"I have met you in the past, but I don't know how really. Just call me by this name until I can remember who I was before they altered me," she told me.

"Do you want me to take them out?" I offered.

"No, they'll receive enough retribution in the long run," she told me, which cued Ash to appear next to us and grabbed my free arm. I sheathed my sword and turned back to Athena, who was trying to shoot daggers from her eyes at me.

"Took you long enough!" she complained. Her hand was sparking from charging a lightening bolt, and not wanting to waste it, she looked around and saw a rabbit and blasted it. It burst into pieces and those burned out. Athena merely walked up to the loot that appeared and picked it up, before turning around to find that once again, she was left behind. "Goddamn it, you guys!"

"You mind trading weapons, Aerossi?" Ash asked, grabbing her javelin and shield. "I can't really use these well."

"Sure. I don't have the reach I need with this," Aerossi said, trading equipment with Ash. I stepped away as they twirled their new weapons and posed, Aerossi with the spear and shield in a stance that reminded me of Nephenee of Fire Emblem and, true to the billhook's higurashian background, Ash in Rena's demented pose.

I decided to do my own pose and took the sword out of its sheath and pointed it in the air. Only to see an urstrix approaching us in that direction. Caught up in the moment, I took a couple steps before front-flipping and hacking down on the avian. Omga much?

The urstrix fell in two, giving up its loot. It was just some feathers, but the moment wasn't spoiled. At least until I saw a large rabble of slavens fighting more urstrixes. The group was gradually growing, and heading quickly toward us. I turned and sheathed my sword, then started running. Aerossi and Ash followed my lead, as did Athena when we past her.

Ash fell slightly behind, and one of the urstrixes saw her then the rest of us and called out to the others. The majority of them had been killed already, but the slavens picked up on us and began making their way over. I looked over and saw that at this rate, Ash wasn't going to make it, so I turned and drew my sword. Aerossi and Athena picked up on this and did the same, Aerossi kicking into the air as well.

Except that Athena was unarmed. "Ash! Give Athena your dagger!" I told Ash.

"My hands are full!" she shouted back, holding her billhook and Athena's shield. The birds and slavens were getting close, and Aerossi placed herself at the head of the group, while Ash stood next to her. A thought came to my mind. I went over to Athena quickly and Aerossi and Ash backed up towards us.

"You still have the Flare spell?" I asked her, and she nodded and pulled the page out of her robe and handed it to me. I got it and hurried before Aerossi and Ash, who eased up on their stances.

I quickly looked at the page, and only read the title, Flare, and started to read the explanation when suddenly I felt my senses slowing down rapidly. The words on the page flowed into my head, unlike the other spells that I had to actually read. I looked back up to the charging mass of creatures and held out my hand. I felt strange, like I was being supercharged while floating in space and I could just…

A bright light in the shape of a halo appeared before me and a ball of energy formed in the center, with electric-like beams radiating into the ball from the outer halo. The ball grew and flattened, spreading out toward the halo, and when the two made contact, the ball emitted an extremely bright light before fading out suddenly.

It took a reasonable amount of time to readjust to the natural sunlight and regain my senses. When I did, my legs felt and acted like jello, making me hit the ground. My arms were sore and the rest of my body didn't want to get up.

"Volker!" I heard the three girls say in turn, lifting me off the ground. I was turned over and laid against a rock, when I felt one of the girls cast multiple healing spells as well as regen on me. The soreness went away and I could feel my legs, and I felt something coming up. I turned to the rock and climbed over it and threw up, giving up what little remained of the meat we had for breakfast.

"You feeling better?" Aerossi asked as I turned back, and I saw her and Ash staring at me expectantly. Athena was staring intently at the Flare page that I had dropped.

"Yeah, just fine," I lied. I tried to stand, and with their help, I was able to. "What's up, Athena?"

"The Flare page, it's changed into Scathe," she told me, holding it out to me.

"What?" I said in disbelief, taking the page. Like she had said, Flare had changed into Scathe, and I had made it so somehow. I looked up to where the crowd of urstrixes and slavens had been, only to find a scraggly few left. for the moment, they had stopped moving, probably in shock from what just occurred.

I looked back at the page before handing it back to Athena, wondering how much mana was available to me, and how it was so simple casting the spell if healing took some effort to do when Flare, a far more difficult spell, easily turned into the supra-spell Scathe unintentionally. Those that remained fled for their lives, but I wasn't going to leave anything that had attacked us.

Athena met my gaze and tossed a semi-physical orb that cleared up my head and turned back to the birds. She threw some thunderbolts at them to keep them on the run as I picked up the fallen loot. As I picked up the last bit, I felt a rain drop hit the back of my neck, making me jump.

I stood and looked at the sky to see the clouds waft overhead, ready to drop their payload. I turned back to my party and motioned them to come over, and we hurried on.

Athena got Ash's dagger, but Ash kept the shield, as she was the weakest of the three tanks. While explaining what a tank was, the person that receives the brunt of the enemy's focus, I eventually went further, and ended up giving each person a role, and that caused Aerossi trying to make Ash give the shield to me.

Our roles were:

Me as the shieldless tank;

Aerossi as the Aerial Lancer who had one shield;

Ash as the Medic/Red Mage who had the other shield;

And Athena as the Black/Arcane Mage.

That should be easy enough to remember.

The rain picked up rapidly and filled the low parts of the savannah, and soon we were all drenched. We didn't mind, until we saw an Undine Entity.

"What do you mean that I can't use my spells?" Athena complained.

"If you use any of your spells, then it will turn aggressive and kill our asses. We haven't been here long enough to build up a resistance against magic," I told her.

"Well, I can't really use a dagger against an elemental orb," she said.

"Volker!" Aerossi called out, pointing to a figure next to the Entity. They touched the Entity and it turned black, corrupted. "It's another one," she said, scared.

I drew my sword as they made their way over and I saw that, indeed, they were yet another daemon.

"My apologizes if my friends were a bit unfriendly with you, but I wish to be friends," he started, chuckling. "My name is Criss Diller, son of Sonia Diller, the second in command of End Co. and like my mother, I am a daemon. She is impressed that none of you have been killed yet. Especially you, avian."

Aerossi tensed up as his gaze landed on her, and Ash ran in front of her, shield raised. I took up stance beside her, but Athena merely looked him over apprehensively. I wonder what she was thinking about.

"I see. There's always the feeling that all daemons are out to mercilessly kill," he sighed.

"All the daemons we've encountered have tried at least once to kill us," I told him.

"True, but I always do mercy kills, therefore I'm different," he countered strangely.

"Mercy kills? Seems alright to me," I said, sheathing my sword.

"Volk?" Aerossi said, her and Ash looking at me curiously.

"Of course, nothing's better than not suffering needlessly. Well, now that you understand, I guess I'll take my leave," Criss said, turning away. He looked over his shoulder at me and said, "Volker, is it? You're in need for a better sword. That only works on everything other than us. Well, see ya."

He took a dagger from his pocket and stabbed and rent the air before him, creating a portal to a swirling abyss, and he walked through, the portal closing behind him.

Instead of waiting for the rest of my crew, I went on ahead, ignoring their nervous stares. I picked the Undine Entity's orb out of the air and motioned for the rest of my group to come. The orb solidified into a crystal the size of a dodge ball and I blew on it gently. It released cool water vapor that became mist as the crystal changed back into its natural state. I dropped it after a bit and it popped back into its full self.

At which point I must have been hallucinating because the Undine Entity turned into a young girl with cat ears and solid light blue eyes. "Hume, you have saved me from the dark sorcerer. Allow me to bestow you with the power to control water," they said, reaching out. I took a step back in hesitance, but allowed it to reach its arms around me.

Undine, as I shall call it for now, slowly turned back to its water spirit form and submerged me, then lifted me off the ground. "Hume, may I know my savior's name?" Undine asked.

"Volker," I told it quickly before the water covered my mouth. Why, can you only do this once?

"Yes, as I am a drowned witch that freely controlled the water around me. being in this form was my repentance and being killed or giving up this power freed me," Undine told me somewhat sorrowfully, reading my mind and explaining what I needed.

I held my breath until Undine tried to open it, and it entered my mouth at full force.

Oh, fukk. I realized that I was going to drown.


	7. Chapter 7

Aerossi

I watched as Volker picked up and blew on the crystal that had formed from the water entity's orb and surrounded himself with mist, cleansing the entity somehow. Ash ran up to him and entered the mist with me and Athena behind her but came out on the other side without finding him.

"Volker!" I called, the three of us looking around in vain. We turned back towards the mist and reentered, this time standing apart from each other. I could barely see anything in this mist, when it started shining and warping and I could see my back. I didn't want to deal with this anymore, so I flapped my wings to clear away the mist.

It didn't go away, so I flapped harder and harder until I could barely stay on the ground, but the mist still wouldn't disperse. I decided I needed out of the mist and walked on, fear building up that another daemon had shown up and taken him already.

When I walked out of the mist, I was almost knee deep in water. It was night time already, and I felt someone watching me. I spun around to see Athena holding her dagger staring and walking intently at me.

"It's about time we settled this. You might be young and pretty, but there's no way you're taking Volker from NMend!" she shouted, and a spark arced off the tip of the dagger. I raised my shield and jumped into the air, but I didn't reach for my javelin.

"Not going to save you this time, daemon!" she shouted.

Volker

"Volk! Get up!" I heard Ash call, shaking me. I opened my eyes and tumbled over, before Ash helped me stand up. I felt something that was really bad and urgent.

"Could you turn around and cover your ears?" I asked her. She looked at me questionably but then did what I asked. I found that the mist had gone away while I was past out, so I spotted a large patch of brush and did my business. My clothes were soaked, and there wasn't much that I could do about it.

Wait, I still had my spare clothes, right? I opened up my backpack and saw that I did. I looked back to see that Ash was patiently waiting for me, watching the light clouds as they rolled slowly by. I quickly changed into new jeans, the Saikun's star shirt, and new boxers. I put the wet clothes, including my vest, into my bag, and went up to stir Ash.

"I thought you drowned!" she told me, looking up at me with saddened eyes.

"But I didn't, did I?" I said, and she hugged my chest. What happen to the older Ash that made her near cold? I put my hands on her back, and she hugged tighter, before letting go.

I looked around for Aerossi and Athena but couldn't see them. "Where did the other two run off?"

"I don't know. One moment we're searching for you and the next they're gone," she said, shaking her head.

"That isn't too bad, but I'd like our party together. We'll get farther faster," I said. "How long was I out?"

"About the entire night. The moon was just poking out of the hills when this all happened."

"Well, hopefully they'll catch up to us or us to them. Let's get moving," I said, leading her south. We walked the rest of Giza Plains, the savannah we were trekking through, and then through Ozmone Plains into Golmore Jungle without many problems.

By the way, anyone who played the game would know that the Japanese sword named Kogarasumaru that was in it is much more powerful than my iron sword, but anyone in my situation would find that the iron sword is somewhat better.

We made it to the save crystal as night fell, and found a small indent in a large boulder nearby that would hid us from the elements for now. We slept together, but no Freud, there wasn't anything going on there, damn it. She's fourteen and I'm still underage, however slightly.

We treaded lightly on the old road, though it wasn't because it was brittle. We came to the first intersection and were spotted by a group of patrolling panthers and were immediately set upon, though they were easier to fight than most of the creatures out on the plains. Come to think of it, I didn't see the Sylph, or Wind, Entity.

Picking up the loot, I strangely found a lesser arcana stone and handed it to Ash, who looked at it, also curious. "What is it?" she asked.

"Arcana, lesser arcana to be exact, that came from the panthers. They must have ate something powerful recently," I guessed. I collected the last of the loot and looked around to see someone trying to get through the forcefields the Eruyt Viera had put up. I drew my sword and told Ash to ready herself.

We made our way over to find it was Aerossi alone, and she was trying to get through desperately. "Hey! Aero!" I called, lowering my sword. She turned toward me and took a moment to smile before running up to meet me.

"Volk! Me and Athena went looking for you, but we ended up here and separated. I saw one of those daemons and the ran past here, but I can't seem to follow them," Aerossi told me, making me look up past the barrier. I saw a Golmore hell hound and a few other creatures, but nothing else.

"Did they identify themselves?" I asked, looking back.

"Michael Goodwin, I believe, but I couldn't follow him," she said, drooping her head.

"Don't worry. He's gone and there's no harm to you. Let's go," I said, patting her on the shoulder and walked up to the barrier. It came into full force before shimmering and dissipating before me, confusing the three of us before I remembered the nethicite in my bag.

"Where'd you get that?" Aerossi asked, as I retrieved the heart-shaped stone and held it up.

"Giruvegan, our destination. It's half the reason we're here," I told her.

"Half?"

"Just before you and Athena got back, the Elder told me that there was a demon rampant named Oni Getsu that needed dealing with. That's our second goal," I lied. Ash looked at me sternly, knowing that we were here to deal with her, not Getsu, but to my luck didn't voice her concern.

"Oni Getsu? They serious?" Aerossi said, looking at me strange, turning away.

"What's up with Getsu?" I asked, curious.

"No, you are not going to die because some people sent you to deal with the demon with a redundant name," she said, walking onward.

"Redundant name? Explain some stuff, Aero," I asked, me and Ash keeping pace.

"Oni means ogre, and Getsu is Monday. You told me this once before out of the blue one day, and I remembered it," she told me, essentially confusing everything more by clarifying.

"Ogre Monday. Okay, but is there a particular reason he'd kill me?"

"Getsu wants everything living dead. He feels as a pure-blood demon that's the way he's supposed to be," Aerossi finally told me.

"So he's a demon. I see why his name is redundant now," I said, thinking of what a typical demon's weakness is. "So we should draw a pentagram and summon him!"

"NO!" Aerossi yelled, stopping and turning around. "Are you fukking stupid? He'll kill you even faster! Pentagrams only work on lower level demons and daemons!"

"Pentagrams don't work… What's this Damascus Cleaver thing?" I asked, remembering what Saikun was telling the Older Ash.

Aerossi jumped in surprise, and shrunk back to walking, hanging her head. "Listen well, because he doesn't give in."

In the southern mountains, or the region of Jagd Difohr, there live two demon brothers. Oni Getsu and Oni Toushou, of the Oni, or ogre demon, family line, are their names. As the name suggest, Toushou is a forge master, but unlike Getsu, he is friendly to the creatures around him, and unless provoked, won't mind having you around.

Getsu on the other hand doesn't care about the living-dead balance to the world. He'd sooner challenge the sun than make friends with anyone but his brother and other demons. Excluding daemons.

Feeling like things needed to change, Getsu tricked his brother into making a Gigas-level cleaver made out of Damascus steel. While Toushou was away one day, Getsu snuck into the forge and took the cleaver and enchanted it with demonic magic.

The property of the magic was that similar to a repellant, but in practice of it, anything that got close to the blade that was made of organic material was ripped apart and sent everywhere. Getsu loved it so much that he raided the nearby lands with only the cleaver, known at that point as the Damascus Cleaver. Although tons of different lifeforms were victim to the weapon, demons, elementals, and non-living material couldn't be harmed with the sword.

Several factions, both of this world and otherwise, took notice of this monstrosity and fought Getsu off, but only managed to destroy his cleaver. When Toushou came back, Getsu was reforging the cleaver and losing his sanity. Toushou, to his chagrin, felt the only way to stop his brother was to seal him away in the forge and abandon it. He searched for another forge to make for his own, but he was chased out of everyone he found for his brother's feats of terror.

It's been several years since the Oni brothers appeared and Getsu raided the land, and both had fallen from the eyes of the lord. The last record of Toushou's sightings was underneath Archades, the capital of the Arcadian Empire, while no one's even heard of Getsu since he was sealed away.

But, if what you're saying is right, that he's reforged the cleaver and he's coming out soon, then we have a definite problem.

"Problem?" I asked as she finished her spiel. Walking as she talked, we were soon in sight of the Feywood, and Ash was returning from picking up a dinosaur's loot.

"We don't exactly have the man power we did back then," she told me.

"How long have you been here again?" I asked, curious.

"About a couple months, although the time here and were I'm from don't match up exactly, so closer to a week and a half from your point of view."

"So, if I went fishing for a year here and went back, only a few months would go by, right?"

"Possibly," she said, before ending the conversation. I felt as the weather chilled and the first snow flakes came down from the sky to greet me. I looked up and smiled as the pockets of mist swirled around the group, making my body feel a bit lighter. I felt Ash hug me tighter to avoid the flakes, but ended up trying to brush them off.

I chuckled, before turning back to see a herd of Deadly Nightshade swarming something… no someone…

"Athena!" Ash called out, drawing her weapons. Me and Aerossi did the same but Aerossi hung back for a moment. Not noticing, I charged ahead of Ash and cleared a path to Athena, whose face now had the scar. It was still fresh, and the Deadly Nightshades were opening it, along with expanding it ever so slightly per swipe.

Reduced to trying to cover her face with her arms rather than casting spells, she looked terrible. I slashed a few more away and picked her up and ran back to Ash and Aerossi, who buffered the swarm of Nightshades following us. Finding a defensible place not far back, I put her down and began healing her.

When the scar healed up somewhat, she calmed down and started to open up, looking at me not with pride but with gratitude.

"Are you okay?" I asked, helping her up.

"No, not really," she said quietly, before she felt the scar, which caused her to buckle. I caught her and helped her against a tree before looking around. The only creatures in sight were the Nightshades, so I left Athena there to help deal with the little twerps.

Athena

Blood ran down my face in trails, and the wound burned my face with pain. I wanted to scream out in agony, but doing so would not help. I saw Volker and the two other girls quarrel with the demonic veggies, and soon enough, the fighting was over. I was completely useless, waste of effort to go after Michael.

I chased after Aerossi with only a dagger and my magic, far away from Volker and Ash, on an impulse that made me screw up greatly. What would Saikun say? No, fukk him actually, what would the Older Ash say?

Same thing she's always said about these screw ups of mine: "Learn from the mistakes that don't kill you and press on."

Is that what got your first self killed nearly forty years ago?

"Feeling better?" I heard Saikun say. I looked up to see Volker, not Saikun, reaching out to me. I took his hand and he helped me up, before looking around for Sai, but he wasn't around. I looked back to a concerned Volker, and gave him a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I told him, and he gave me an unnerved look and smile, but there was also a light hearted feeling in his eyes. I looked over to Aerossi, who was judging whether or not to stay away from me, then to Ash who was still clinging onto Volker, who seemed to pay no heed.

I walked over to pick up my dropped shield and turned back to my group. "The End is getting on my nerves," I told them.

"Well, they are the villainous crew," Volker put in, sheathing his sword.

"And we are the heroic ones," Aerossi added, leaning against a tree.

"And the heroes will always triumph!" Ash finished, pumping her fist into the air.

"That's right," I said, returning to their side.

"My apologizes if my subordinates have been causing you trouble," a loud and very unwanted voice boomed around us. I turned and swung my shield around to find that Michael had returned, his unkempt Hume street clothes had been traded in for his iconic black butler outfit, along with neatened hair and shaved face.

A quick look over my shoulder showed that Sonia, Rachael, Ezekiel and Criss had appeared to surround our group. Sonia was wearing her skimpy battle outfit and had her gun out of its holster, while her son Criss was in his black faux-Japanese school uniform, holding his Royal Regir Flamberge Rapier, and Rachael in the tight leather dominatrix jacket and hot pants. The only thing that was good was that Ezekiel, Sonia's husband, hadn't yet submitted to the daemon faction, for he still wore his street clothes, contrasting Michael very much.

Volker took to my back, sword drawn, with Aerossi to his right and Ash to the left. Michael was directly in front of me, while his wife Rachael stood seventy-two degrees to my right. Sonia, Criss, and Ezekiel stood an equal distance in that order from each other. Tells you a bit about the family and friends.

The familiar portal appeared behind me, in front of Volker, and the businessman-clad demon stepped forth. "I hope that you'd forgive us for any mistreatings," Ezashin said, smiling widely.


	8. Chapter 8

Volker

To my left was Sonia, the woman from the Market Place in Rabanastre. To my right was Criss, who was possibly my friend from the D&D days. Behind me were three individuals who I've yet to meet, but clearly from the others were evenly matched in hatred.

The hatred grew more prominent when the business suit-clad man appeared from his own portal, apparently the leader of the five daemons. "I hope that you'd for any mistreatment we might have done to you," the man said, a smile appearing on the bumpy, red wart-encrusted face of his.

He was large and boisterous, and I didn't doubt that he had muscle, but he looked like some cheap eighties' flick politician with pointy, craggy ears. He had the slitted eyes the other daemons had, but these were greenish and less welcoming.

"There hasn't been overly much that we can call you out for," I said, readying my sword. I met Criss' snarky, smiling look as he copied my stance, his serrated rapier gently searing the ground as the tip licked the fallen snow. "Although if you'd leave us alone from now on, we might not have to try to fight with another."

"Ah, who said we needed to? The data life form? The corrupted school girl? Or was it the younger girl to your right, Ashleyian Piren, I believe, whose past life my subordinate Rachael killed?" he said, indicating the woman on the other side of Sonia. She waved flirtingly as I looked over, before reaching for the straps on her leather corset.

I looked away, and she audibly giggled. "I could care less for what they've told me," I told the man, turning back to him. "I've merely come here to return a trinket I was borrowing and to calm a beast, that's all."

"Return a trinket and slay a beast? This far south makes me quite curious as whom this person is," he replied, pacing between Sonia's and Criss' sides.

"If historical accounts are correct on this geographic land, then you wouldn't mean you're trying to kill Getsu?" Criss threw out sarcastically, lowering his weapon and setting the nearly frozen grass ablaze.

"Getsu? You mean _Oni_ Getsu? What a joke!" the man adjacent to Criss' left put out, laughing.

"Ezekiel, you absolutely right. You five humans, err, three humans, a data life form and untrained daemon couldn't possibly stand up to Getsu, even all together," the man directly behind me said, burning his own partner and making the others laugh along. "Hell, even the hume teenager can outlast you fighting Getsu."

"That's enough Michael, I think Ezekiel's ego has already shriveled up to the size of his beef," the businessman daemon said crudely, much to Ezekiel's spite.

Rachael zipped to Ezekiel's side, hanging off his chest. "Don't mind my husband. He's just saving up his jealousy for when you become a daemon yourself and it grows enough to where it actually can compete with his, or at least stick into something!" she said, before zipping and back bursting out with more laughter.

Ezekiel gave her a glared look before muttering foul language under his breath. When he got to 'fukk', a nearby tree exploded and burst into flames.

"Yeah, Dad! That's making progress!" Criss cheered, waving his blade over his head, catching a drooping vine on fire.

"Moving on before we destroy the forest," I said, motioning to the man.

"Right," he coughed, before standing up straight and resting his hands on a cane that matched his outfit. "I present to you a proposition, an ultimatum of sorts. Join us, and we will help you and your friends with anything you need help for. On the flipside, should you return your trinket and reject our favor or steel yourselves before hand in preparation, indirectly rejecting our favor, we will take away one of your teammates, one by one I mean, and either convert them to our side or crush them completely. You have until Giruvegan to decide, as you already owe us a person."

"Who am I dealing with, demon?" I asked, feeling the pressure weigh in.

"Leveah Ezashin, leader of the End Co. and Ascending Lord of the Dark. I've waged eighty-three battles in my lifetime and won eighty-two. Can't help the poor bastard that broke my combo," Ezashin boasted.

I looked at each of the six daemons, noting their appearance and resemblances. Michael looked almost like Sebastian, Criss like a Japanese delinquent, and Sonia like Soi Fon with Tifa's gear. Ezashin, Rachael and Ezekiel seemed to be completely unique, although something was bothering me about Ezashin.

"With that, we take our leave," Ezashin said, summoning his portal. "Think on it, but think quickly. We don't have forever."

"Yay! Now Ezekiel will have a human-buddy!" Rachael squeaked before porting.

"Yeah, yeah," Ezekiel moaned.

The rest of the crew ported out except Criss, who sheathed his sword. "Ya know, maybe we aren't the bad guys here. Maybe we're just not showing our good sides on purpose," he said, before following his group.

I relaxed my grip and put my sword in its sheath, but didn't let go of the handle.

"Don't go," I heard Aerossi say, hugging my shoulders. "Don't go with them."

I reached up and placed my hand on hers, before I turned around and hugged her. Ash tugged at my side, and I turned and smiled to her. I looked over at Athena who was sharing the moment on her own.

"Don't worry, I'm not lowering myself anymore than I have to," I told Aerossi. Then something completely out of the blue hit me. "I… umm.. would like to say that I also have a girl back home that's waiting for me, so don't try to claim me, alright?"

"That doesn't mean we can't try!" Ash piped up, much to Athena's spite.

Aerossi laughed jokingly. "You're too young to chase after him, Ash. Maybe in a few years you can attempt to take him from me," she said, provoking Ash.

"No, he's mine!" Ash said, striking out with her fists. Aerossi pulled out her shield and the first two punches from Ash made the youngsters fists yield in pain. Aerossi laughed, and Ash cried a bit, jabbing the older kid playfully.

Athena snuck up behind me and reached around, putting her hands on my sides. "You need to eat a bit more," she said quietly.

"Hey, one more thing," Criss said, appearing behind me again. The four of us jumped away and spun around, reaching for our weapons. He was sitting on the tree he had mildly burnt, which had put itself out in his absence.

"Just a word from Ezashin: Athena is your past, Court your present, and Ash your future. Don't think you can live without one." He met my eyes and held them there for the moment before porting back.

I felt the three girls look at me with awkward glances, but I had too little information to connect the dots. I shook my head and met each of their gazes before rubbing my forehead.

"Probably nothing or something for later examination. Let's go before they actually decide to come at us," I told them, uneased by Ezashin's message. I started walking, the three of them staring confused at me, before following after.

I'm half glad that we had a bag of holding a crap load when we entered the world, because my personal backpack wouldn't be able to hold everything. Especially several Mirror Mails, one of which I modified and wore. I took off the shoulder and everything from the waist down off, and put it on under my vest, out of sight.

"A tank's got to have at least some armor," I said, trying to justify wearing something that might have been apart of the Mirror Knight bird's body.

"Right," Athena moaned, not wanting any part of it. Ash and Aerossi said nothing, and I looked over to the edge of the forest. I couldn't see through it, because the break in the trees was filled with swirling Mist.

"You feeling alright, Aerossi?" I asked, not wanting her to go berserk in high-levels of Mist in the middle of it. The swirling vortex was only starting to encroach on the forest part rather than already have encroached like in the game.

"Yeah, although I think I'm starting to have hallucinations," she said, pointing out a shining part of Mist as it faded.

"Don't worry too much about hallucinating here, though it would be hard not to think that. It's just the Mist for the most part," I told her, and she gave me a reassuring smile. "Stay by my side, tap my shoulder if you see something."

"Okay," she said, moving next to me. Athena stayed within arms reach behind me, and Ash, still being her younger self, kept clinging to my right arm, the billhook gently tapping my leg. We entered the Mist vortex and felt rough resistance, but soon the pressure subsided, letting us through.

Recalling the region from the game in my world, we were in southern Feywood, the first of two ice fields to be exact. The first structure came into view soon enough, and we were met with a couple of Mantises, which reminded me of the Behemoth Lord and then the Gigas Gate.

I turned to my group, and after I had their glances, I told them about my thought. "Farther along, there's a gate known as the Gigas Gate, which can be only opened by those of such power. We don't have that, but I think I know of a way to open it without going through hell, and it involves killing everything in this field."

"And after we clear the fields?" Athena inquired.

"A powerful beast, hopefully powerful enough to open the gate, will appear near here. We'll need to kite it over to the gate and if I'm correct, then it'll open the gate, allowing us through."

"And you think we could defeat it after the gate opens and we're through?"

"No, but there's a gate guardian inside the gate, protecting the entrance to our destination. If we can kite the beast to the guardian, then they'll fight each other while we get through."

"And where'd you learn all this?" Athena asked snarkly.

"Video games," I admitted. To my surprise, both Athena and Ash looked at me strange.

"What's that?" Athena asked in a serious voice. I looked at her like she was crazy, then turned back, drawing my sword.

"You're how old and you've never heard of an electronic gaming toy?" I asked, approaching the mantises. They heard me and turned to attack, but I greeted them with my sword. "Video games are an interactive, multi-layered network of controls that are built and play in times of leisure, more or less."

The mantises rushed swiftly towards me and struck out, but they hit my breastplate instead of the tender meat underneath. I swung my blade and sliced off their outstretched claws and pressed into them, striking them down. They let out a cry as they fell to the ground, before vanishing and giving up their spoils.

"I see," she commented. "Well then, let's split up. I'll take the forest line west and the rest of you can figure it out on your own." She turned and walked off, the sound of ground-based lightening strikes echoing in the air.

I turned to see Ash already a while off following the tree line the other direction, and I couldn't see Aerossi. I turned and entered the building and looked around, and saw the design on the ground was inactive.

To those who haven't played the game, if the markings on the floor of the buildings are glowing, then the view out of one of the windows will be that of a lush tropic, not the snowy, misty fields you were at. That warped image isn't a hallucination, but an illusion that actually marks the way you are supposed to go. However, if the design isn't glowing, then there's no illusion, thus no path.

I chose an exit to go through and went that direction. A few steps out, I ran into Aerossi and a small group of snakes. I hurried to Aero's side and helped her deal with the snakes. I began to worry that splitting up wasn't a good idea when Aerossi poked me, deflating my light reverie.

"I get to be with you again, alone," she said, smiling.

"I've never met you until the incident in the canyon and the bazaar, so how do you know me?" I asked, trying to find a familiar vibe.

"Oh, that's right," she said, saddening. "You disappeared on the day we met, and didn't come back to school for some time. I had hoped you'd at least come to my house eventually to give me the game, but you never did. You really don't know, do you?"

Aerossi looked up to meet my eyes, the feathers on her face gently ruffling in the Mist. They no longer smoked, but they retained the dark, burnt color and were gaining red flecks here and there, even on her wings. I looked back deep into her eyes, trying to connect, but there was too little familiarity to see.

I looked away, trying to remember the people I met a few days ago. There was Athena, Ash, the Older Ash, Saikun, the woman who had given me the envelope, the third person when Saikun and the Older Ash were discussing Getsu, and… the girl who I went on a date with. I tried to remember the exact details of the event but they eluded me.

"Don't worry about it right now. I can't even remember my own name, so I'm Aerossi Megalith for now. Volker," she paused to move to me and place her arms around me. "Stay with me. Come back to me," she said, burying her face in my chest.

I reached around her, returning the embrace. If this was what Ezashin meant about her being my future, then-

"Hey! You two! Come on!" I heard Athena yell. We ignored her for a moment longer before parting, which I kissed her on her forehead.

"Is that enough for now?" I asked quietly, and she nodded.

"I love you, Volker," Aerossi said, looking back into my eyes.

"I do too, Aerossi," I replied, stepping back. I turned away from Aerossi's browning eyes and looked over to Athena, who was glaring at us. "So, what's this about being a data life form?" I asked as I caught up to her and Ash, who was similarly pouting.

"That's for another time! As for you, don't distract him!" Athena said to Aerossi, who gave her no heed. "Anyway, I don't think this splitting up thing works real well, so I'll take Aerossi and take the western half while you and Ash take the south half. And don't do anything perverted!"

Athena grabbed Aerossi and stormed off, barely giving the latter enough time to blow a kiss in my direction. Ash grabbed my arm in a similar manner and pulled me away. Soon, the mist separated both me and Ash from the other two. I looked down to Ash, who was looking up at me expectantly.

"Wait a bit. Let's let Athena cool down a bit before she decides to kill me," I told Ash, who went back to pouting, indicating that I hit the mark. Do all the girls, sans the daemons, want me or something?

Of course they do. Why, no, how could I ask that question when the answer presented itself before the question even occurred?

* * *

><p><strong>In any kind of Japanese fantasy story, you have three kinds of characters: one that will get all of the girls (or guys) in universe, one that will attract girls (or guys) in the meta-verse, and those guys who will have no love at all because they're one of those two guys.<strong>

**And no, I don't support RinxLen. In fact I detest it.**


	9. Chapter 9

Behemoth King

The Mist, seething and breaking at inconsistent intervals, has done so consistently as it expands from the refreshed Giruvegan Crystal. The presence of the Hume who forced it to do so grows ever closer, stronger with mixed comrades with even stranger beings.

An artificial artifice, one in disrepair, another belonging to darkness. Each connected to the destructive Hume in their own way.

It matters not. The Holy Gate might be closed and the Holy City repaired but the Hume is not allowed to exist after defiling the Holy Capital, and his co-patriots will suffer as they seek to group with the fool!

Volker

Turning away from the red eyed girl, Ash grabbed my arm and started to drag me onward. Soon the mist parted the two groups, and we found one of the shrines. I entered it and, seeing as the ground was lit up, I turned and saw the illusion of a oasis in one direction.

"What is this place?" Ash asked, looking up at me.

"A place so dense in magic that even the worst mage would be a deadly threat," I said, before starting towards the veil. Once I exited the shrine, the illusion disappeared and revealed the snowy, twisting mist landscape around us. "Stay with me," I told her, and she grabbed my hands. She stopped near immediately and looked intently forward.

A figure appeared in the mist, a woman, and strode toward us with hesitant steps. She looked like Athena, but was taller and had green eyes, and was wearing a long red and black dress. Familiarity came to mind, though I haven't met re yet. A name surfaced, and it escaped my mouth as she came closer.

"Nihzil," I called, uncertain of the accuracy, but the woman slowed and stopped, nodding.

"Noel," she called back, her voice strong but flat. I shook my head in denial, and she flinched. "My bad."

She lowered her head apologetically before looking up again, to see that me and Ash were walking over to her. She took a step back, blushing, before turning toward me and quickly glomped (Hug-tackled) me, knocking me to the ground. I reached for my sword and Ash grabbed her and tried to yank her off me, until both of us noticed she was quivering.

"Are you okay?" I asked, slowly loosening my grip on my sword.

"No! Yes! I don't know! It's just that I wanted to see you and then I felt like I knew you from somewhere and then I lost familiarity for a moment and then this rush of feelings for you came over me and you came towards me and I couldn't contain myself! I'm sorry!" Nihzil said, sobbing. I drew back, pushing her off me, and she looked up at me, then looked over at Ash. She sat up and then stood when I did, and regarded Ash in a slightly confusing manner.

Letting one last sniffle out, she wiped away her tears and composed herself. "I need to be going," she said, then summoned a portal, similar to the one Ezashin used, then stepped through, disappearing.

I shook my head to clear it, and walked on. Ash walked beside me, looking back for both of us. She wasn't there, Ash gestured with a sigh, but there remained a strong gaze on the back of my neck as we headed away from the shrine.

Besides the occasional appearance of a monster, there was nothing notable. When we met up on the far edge of Clearsight, Athena wanted to be my partner for this leg of the trip, but Ash grabbed my arm and dragged me away, making Athena mad and Aerossi giggle. Nihzil didn't show up again, and as we finished up the second area, we came across some treasure urns.

Some distance away, there was Aerossi and Athena, a bit roughed up but otherwise just fine. "You guys surviving?" I asked, and Aerossi happily nodded. Athena moved over to Ash and asked her if I was behaving myself.

"Mostly," she said, pouting and looking at me.

"Mostly?" Athena said, eyeing me before returning to Ash.

"There was this woman who came out of the mist and tackled him to the ground and laid on top of him, and he was nice to her. Although she was crying the entire time," Ash told Athena, who glowered at me. "She looked like you, only older and had green eyes."

Athena looked at her startled, then turned away and snarled at the path we took. The three of us looked at her with curiosity rising, before Athena buckled and started punching the ground. Me and Ash ran to her side and helped her up as a small amount of tears ran down her face. She reached around me and Ash and pulled us together for a tight hug, but we went along with it. We embraced her and her breaths became broken, and her hair fell down to cover her scar.

"We'll always be there for each other, right?" she said, slightly sobbing.

"Yeah," I said, and Ash nodded. "We're here for you."

"Do you know who it was?" Aerossi said, kneeling in front of us. Athena looked at her, then stood up.

"Yes, the woman with my look but green eyes is my mother, Nihzil Winters. She's the heir apparent for the End," Athena told us, the fire in her red eyes building up, literally causing her eyes to glow with power. "If you meet her again, bring her to me. We need to spend time together as a family," she said fiercely, her anger very obvious.

"What are these?" Aerossi asked, and I looked over to see her leaning over the treasure urns.

"Those are treasure chests, though as to why they are in the middle of this particular clearing, I have no idea," I told her.

Athena knelt before the urns and tried to open one, but couldn't. "Well, if you're so knowledgeable about them, then find a way to open them, because," she instructed, grabbing another one and tried to twist the lid off, then put it back, giving up, "I can't seem to."

I looked to Ash for something, but she looked at me curious. I wonder what I was expecting. I walked up to the urns and placed my hands on one of them, and it flashed and the Deathbringer sword appeared before me. I put the iron sword in my bag of holding and grabbed the Deathbringer, equipping it.

I swung it playfully toward Athena and gave her a smile, and to my twisted delight she stepped back in what one could describe as slight horror. I chuckled, stashing it on my belt and reached out for another and withdrew an X-potion, which took form as a bottle. I put it in my bag of holding and stood up, leaving the shield urn alone for the moment and stretching.

Then, I felt the ground rumble. I stopped and turned toward the source, back the way we came, and then felt it again stronger. Aerossi looked at Athena and Ash before looking at me, as did the other two. I motioned for silence out of habit, and they stopped moving. Not a moment later, the dirt shook under us and we ran toward the gate. When it was in sight, so was the behemoth behind us.

To our luck, the gate sensed the behemoth's great power and opened up for us and we ran through to the long bridge that spanned for quite a bit. However, the behemoth was gaining fast. I looked back to its large form not fifty meters from us. A speeding blue light zoomed from behind it and caught its attention for a moment, before continuing after us. The light was ignored by the behemoth until it turned out to be Saikun and he slashed at it, but that didn't catch much aggro.

We saw the end of the very long walk way and the gate guardian, and like I had said earlier, much earlier, it animated as the six of us ran at it. We ran up to it as the behemoth caught up, and to our luck the gate guardian stood casting haste on itself. Unfortunately, we split up at the last moment and the behemoth, going too fast to stop, slammed into the guardian and sent them both over the end of the long walk, and into the water below.

Saikun, without talking to us, rushed to the waystone as it appeared, and warped out before I could call out to him. What's his rush?

When the four of us remaining caught our breath, we regrouped and asked if everyone was good to go. I suggested to walk back to the crystal if it was there, it was, and when we were finally ready, the day was coming to an end. I looked to each of the girls, and when they gave me a nod, touched the waystone and warped into Giruvegan proper.

Nihzil Winters

I watched as Athena and her group left to the Crystal City, with Saikun going ahead to do what I asked, and knowing him he wouldn't fail to deliver them to us. I was a bit worried that this process wouldn't work, or be overdone, or any other reason that the path would be shifted. I looked forward to meeting him again, as he told me that I was to meet Volker again in the near future. What would it be about?

I felt Athena's temper rise slightly, then she became flustered and left behind. I was getting that vibe a lot from her. Left behind, I repeated in my mind. I felt bad about leaving her for years at a time, but I always know how she feels, and I was glad she always felt good. But then…

I shook my head to clear those dark thoughts away. She has matured much lately, and it was pleasing to know that she can handle things on her own. Even if she can't, she knows what she can do to achieve what she will.

I'm sorry.

Athena

When we arrived in the Holy city, something of great importance came up, so when they turned around to walk on, I hurried to the edge of the platform to do my business. Sure enough, when I turned around, they had disappeared, and I felt angry at them again, but it was my own fault this time. I hurried to catch up with them, but I couldn't find them. I wandered lost, but when I found something dead laying on the ground, I knew that I was on the right track. The creature looked like an imp that had shredded wings and a black tail. Laying next to it was a black pitchfork.

It suddenly twitched, causing me to jump and blast it with lightening. It spazzed out and poofed into smoke, before dropping the loot bag. I took it and started to worry that I had got lost. This place was a switchback labyrinth carved out of dark blue stone and crystal pieces, decorated with glowing green lights on the floors and walls. There was a roof way up high, looking like a huge dome. Coming down from there along the walls, it looked like there were numerous places like this one, but none of them protruded farther than a quarter of a mile towards the center. Filling that gap was an immense crystal, shining like the sun and brimming with vast magical energy. But there was something I felt in it that made it seem like it was drawing in the energy and storing it like a vacuum.

I shook off the feeling and continued my search for the rest of my party. I saw them fighting a pair of blue golems and hurried down when a man with black devil wings passed by. I recognized him as Noel, but what he was doing here I didn't know. I shook his sudden appearance out of my head and ran down the switchbacks to be greeted by a couple of strange plants. They had bulbous heads and tentacle-like vines coming out of their trunk. They carried a small crown on their heads, and when they got close to me they threw it up and revealed a gapping mouth.

I backed away, but they followed close. They tackled my back and knocked me over, and I face planted on the hard stone ground.

What was I doing? I was scared, but I knew that this wasn't anything harsh like what I've been through. This was me being stupid, silly even. I turned around as they tackled me, hitting me in my face. Spun around and charged a thunderbolt, then reaching out and grabbing the plant creature, catching it with static from the charging electricity. It twitched wildly and chomped on my hand, but I focused on the spell and blew its body apart. The second one went around the first's entrails and attempted to get a bite of its own, but I raised my shield and—

Didn't have a shield. It bit down on my arm and I saw the creature's disgusting teeth putting diseases into my arm. The pain overwhelmed my brain and kept me from focusing, and it started to grind and chew, when my arm sparked up on its own, frying the plant. I felt afraid again, and the electricity shot out of my arm and continued to electrocute the monster plant. Some binary and hexadecimal codes flowed out of my arm like blood before circling the wounds, and closed the wounds up by adding themselves to the surrounding skin.

When both of the plants poofed and my arm stopped the strange healing/debugging process, I sat there shivering in fear and wonder as to what just happened. I couldn't remember what it meant, nor why it didn't work on my scar in between my eyes, but I was glad when I saw Ash walking up the ramp and running to meet me.

She hugged me and asked me if I was okay, but I stayed quiet for a moment. Aerossi picked up the two loot bags and Volker stood by to help me up, his twisted sword at his side.

"You alright?" he asked, repeating Ash's question.

I nodded. "Yes, just… getting over something hard to explain," I told him and Ash held me tighter.

"I was so worried about you! You might have been eaten or worse!" Ash said, and I fidgeted at the recent memory, but relaxed and patted her on the back.

"You have too little faith in me, young one," I told her, and stood up with Volker's help.

"I managed to scout out the rest of the way through. Are you ready to go?" he told me.

"Video games?" I asked.

"Yes, video games," he sighed, taking my words as harsh-intended.

"Anyway, I would like to have a shield," I asked.

"There's one out where we were chased by the behemoth, if you want to go back, that is," Volker snarked.

"I'll try to stay alive for now," I joked, and he chuckled.

"We all will. For now," he said, and we went on our way.

* * *

><p>I remember there was a prince who asked me when I was younger, well, when I wasn't a thousand years old, that he'd like to marry me. I turned him down a hundred times on request of my mother, and he never seemed to grow impatient no matter how many times he asked. I never loved him, but I didn't doubt that he loved me to death, which was ironic, of course. However, I couldn't leave his side, he never let me, and one day I was asked to go somewhere he couldn't know of. He asked that I choose a messenger or story writer to write of my adventures and send them to him, and I choose a young blonde girl named Ashleyian Piren.<p>

* * *

><p>Volker led the group through a second set of switchback labyrinth to a small cloister of sorts. There was a view port of the massive crystal, known to Volker as the Great Crystal of Giruvegan, the city we were in. it was made of nethicite, a magic draining rock that was extremely dangerous to the world, equivalent to a perfected atomic and hydrogen bomb times ten if forced to be used as a weapon.<p>

I asked what were the benefits to having such destructive power, but he shrugged. He didn't know what good it was to build such monstrosity, or it's practical uses out of war, but there were people who obtained shards and used them for good. Volker had one of his own, but he only has come back to return it.

We moved on after a moment, and took our time looking around, when a group of adventures, a pirate, a bunny girl, two teenagers, a knight and a princess, I guess, showed up and found a hidden path toward the Great Crystal. They took it as we hid from them, and like Volker said not a few seconds later a dragon descended upon them. The group fought and defeated the beast, and a waystone appeared. They took it and vanished, and after a few moments, we followed them.

When we arrived on the other side, inside the Great Crystal, we saw a familiar face.

"Hello again, Volker, Ash, Athena, Aero. How are you this evening?" Criss asked, waving.

"It's morning to me," Volker told him, and Criss chuckled.

"So I was supposed to deliver a message to you in a few moments, but I can't seem to recall what the message was for the life of me," Criss said, pacing. "Now what could it be?"

"Would it have anything to do with a certain game we used to play?" Volker asked, and Criss shook his head.

"No, we already went over that. Colleen's safe, and so is Jake," Criss said, irritated.

"Though what happened to Becca isn't overly good," Volker said.

Criss shot him a look of obvious frustration. "I already said that! You even told me that she died over… never mind. Just, let's get back on subject," Criss said, saddened. Volker also looked away.

"Could your message be about the three of us?" Aerossi piped up, and Criss looked at her, before nodding.

"Yeah, now I remember it. It was about the three of you being a major part of Volker's time, though if I remember correctly there hasn't been a notable loss of players in the game yet, despite a duplication of a few of them. I'll see you in a little bit to tell you the message," Criss said, bowing.

"Yeah, see you in a few," Aerossi said, and Criss teleported out.

"What was all that about?" I asked Volker.

"Just a bit of twisted reminiscing," he told me, before Ash, tired of being left out, walked to one of the platform's ends that we were standing on and found a place where the borders split and while we were going in a different direction, ran down it unnoticed, unaware that we weren't following.


	10. Chapter 10

'Ashleyian Piren'

I ran down the magic forcefields that served as a ramp, not looking back. I didn't hear anyone behind me, but I didn't care. I saw a gate stone guarded by a pair of golems, so I charged them and hacked one down and dodged the spells of the other, before swiftly taking it down. I turned back to the gate stone after collecting the loot bags and turned it off. It fizzed off and the sigil above it faded.

I turned and wordlessly returned to the first waystone, before seeing a left behind Athena stomp down one of the other passages. A part of the barricade warped and vanished like the sigil, and it made her turn around. She turned back to the departing group and got their attention, before forcefully dragging them back up the ramp.

"What is it?" Volker asked, and I pointed to the place where the barrier once was.

"Do you want to go up there?" Aerossi asked, and I nodded. She looked at Volker, and he gestured to lead the way. I gave him a smile and when he was in arms reach I grabbed and hanged off his arm.

The group walked up the new ramp and we found another waystone, and when everyone was ready, I touched and it moved the group elsewhere in the Great Crystal. Volker looked around and then sighed, before leading the party on. I looked at him grow unsteady, like he was trying to remember something that just barely had stayed there.

I looked up at him, and he noticed and looked down at me, before Aerossi reached for her spear. I looked up reaching for my weapon, noting the two shadow horse fiends heading our way. Volker took out his Deathbringer and ran up to meet them, while I prepared a regeneration spell. He swung, and the sword bit down into one of the horse's fettered flesh, and it gave out a whine. The second rammed him with the blade on its head, and cut his chest. I threw a healing spell, and the wound healed.

Athena shot a thunder spell at the first horse and it started to buckle, when Aerossi spiked it with her spear, and it fell to the ground. The second horse, noticing the loss of its partner, brayed angrily and proceeded to hack at Volker. He parried two of the hits and took another, before its horn glowed and thrashed its head, making a spinning disc to emit from it and shred at Volker's chest. I threw a healing spell and he brushed off the wound, and struck out, hacking into the horse's breast. He ducked out of the horn's way and let Aerossi pierce the animal's chest, and she let go as it stuck in the rotten flesh.

Athena took this moment to send an electric charge into both weapons, electrocuting the beast. It screeched loudly, but poofed into smoke soon enough. Volker picked up and tossed the spear towards Aerossi, who caught it with ease, and reclaimed his Deathbringer. I threw another healing spell towards Volker, and took his arm once more. He walked on, and we came to a split in the path. He took the path straight ahead, and we found another pair of horses.

They didn't notice us until we stepped onto the platform, and I saw a large treasure crystal hovering in the midst of it. The boundary forcefield extended to block us from retreating, and the two horses came at us, but when they passed the crystal, they froze and turned into a gaseous vapor before engulfing the crystal chest. Several more vaporous beasts entered through the sky and mixed themselves in with the cloud of shadow beasts. The culminative orb of the shadow grew and soon it started to blot out the chest.

Not one for patience, Volker ran for the chest, Deathbringer in hand. Athena tossed a lightning bolt that parted a bit of the dark mass. The part fell onto the platform and turned into a small horse, which charged at Volker. Aerossi sped up to him and speared the horse, blocking it from reaching Volker. I ran behind him in case he needed to heal, and the dark mesh started to choke the chest.

The small horse relented and butted Aerossi out of the way, and nearly trampled me trying to get past. "Volker!" I called out reflexively, but he didn't stop. Instead, he ran faster, before the mass began solidifying.

"No!" he cursed, and tried to swing out, but the mass opened its eyes and glared at him, before a fist materialized and smashed into him. He flew back over the small ghost horse and rolled to my feet, nearly tripping me. I quickly stopped and used a healing spell, while Aerossi tried to fight the ghost horse that was trying to turn around.

"Are you okay?" I asked, worry obvious in my voice.

"Not really, but I'll live," he said, getting up. I looked back to see the ghost horse that was chasing him poof into smoke as Aerossi delivered the final blow, and Athena throwing another lightning bolt at the beast that was forming.

It was a large, humanoid version of the horses it was made out of, and it formed armor out of the remaining swirling darkness. The chest had all but disappeared within it, and all of the contents. The beast reached into its chest and, with a grunt, pulled out a great sword. The horseman shrunk as it did so, and Volker brushed off his injuries and started to run towards the beast. When the sword was out, Volker rushed it with Deathbringer, with Aerossi right behind him. Athena was throwing her lightning spells with diminishing effect, causing her to try and syphon some magic energy off the horseman.

I tossed the shield past Volker, who jumped to the side to dodge, before taking a misstep and tripped. "Hey!" he shouted, getting up, but his leg seized and stopped moving him forward, but the momentum of his body made him fall to the floor again. The shield soared through the air and the horseman caught it, then added its dark energy to it, morphing the shield into a much larger and solid shield. It then stabbed the ground with the sword, and the runes carved on it glowed a golden color for a moment, before shrieking and becoming a deathly white.

The horseman roared, and Athena sent another lightning bolt at it, but the beast caught it and threw it back at her. She dodged it and then ran, as the horseman had decided to rush her. Volker tried to get up, but even though I cast a healing spell at him, he didn't look any better. Aerossi ducked in and out, spearing the horseman while he chased Athena, but when the horseman turned around to see what was hitting it, Aerossi zoomed upwards to avoid detection.

Volker limped over to the horseman with a pained expression on his face, so I went to him and tried to help him out, and he took me under his arm. "You doing alright?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I'm just not happy that the horseman has the shield instead of you," I told him, and he chuckled.

"Sorry about that," he said.

"No, don't worry about it. I threw it towards you without warning, so I should be taking the blame," I told him, both of us smiling. Then I recalled something similar to this, something like when I met Saikun. "Do you know what my name is?"

"Umm, yeah, isn't it Ash Piren or something?" he asked, like an obvious answer.

"No, she was my past life, from what Athena tells me. I'm…" I trailed, somehow not able to remember it. "It's not that, but I can't seem to remember what it actually is."

"Right, well that's not overly important right now," he said, bringing my attention back to the horseman. "What shall we call it?" he asked.

"We aren't keeping it as a pet," I remarked, and he shot a demeaning glance at me. I looked at him back the same way, until I realized that wasn't what he meant, and muttered an apology. "What were you thinking about?"

"This guy isn't in the game, so I was thinking we could make up a name for him. Umbral Knight, Horseman of the Crystal, or something like that," he joked.

"Umbral Knight?"

"Light-serving Darkness'," he explained. I nodded, before turning back to the strange comedy act preformed by the three. "But I would like that sword of his very much."

"What is it? Durandal?"

"No, but I want that one too. The one he has is Excalibur," he said, clarifying. He was starting to walk normally, when the three jesters, Aerossi, Athena and the Umbral Knight, started getting weirder. Rather than being a serious fight, it looked like a race to see who could last the longest running around the platform while swinging their weapons randomly. None of them hit the other, but…

"Alright, you three. What's 2 + 3?" Volker shouted out, walking normally with me at his side, ready to join in on the fun.

The three of them stopped, and began counting like they had time to waste. Volker and I got right next to the Umbral Knight, and he readied his Deathbringer. I heard Athena and Aerossi making up numbers quietly, and the horseman was actually doing the math, but each number was taking a moment to process.

"Oh! Fiv!" it said suddenly, calling out the answer. It held out its hands and started cheering the number over and over. Volker cracked a smile, before slashing the creature. It looked startled as it buckled and fell on its back with a thud. The three of us jumped, startled before looking at Volker, who stood over the fallen beast.

It started to get up, when Volker kicked it back down. "No! No! I live!" it protested.

"Of course, friends don't kill each other," he said with a smile, before stepping away. The horseman relaxed, before jumping up and literally brushing the scar off. "That was for hitting me earlier. And I still want that blade, but you'd be useless without it."

The horseman regarded him cautiously, then looked at the rest of us. It had no pupils, but its sight wafted over us like heat, but it was friendly and apparently wanted to be friends. I followed Volker back towards the ramp, and with the barrier gone, the four of us followed.

He lead us back the way we came, and waited for us at the waystone. When we were ready, he touched it and three of us were teleported down to the other waystone. The Umbral Knight used a different method of travel and ended up beating us there.

"Let's call him Cedric!" Athena proposed.

"Sure, we need a name for him," Volker agreed, and Cedric cheered. We all chuckled before resuming down the ramp. Volker led us the way he and the others went at first, and we encountered some strange panthers. The group hacked them away without much effort and moved on, before finding the waystone and repeating the process for two more floors, with barriers this time. But heaven forbid that we didn't have Volker's knowledge, as we used the third to last waystone and ended up right in front of the nethicite ore that his shard was made out of.

It was beautiful, shining brighter than the crystal around us. When the three of us, besides Cedric, stopped ogling it, we moved farther down, to the second to last waystone. We took it, with Cedric following us, and ended up in a corridor. The air was quiet, and there was no sounds, like we were the only ones around. We probably were, as everything around us was seemingly undisturbed. Saikun had probably gone ahead of us to clear the path, and he did a good job of it.

Going through the bulwarks, we found him casting a spell on the last waystone, before turning toward us. He had his hood up hiding his face, so I guess it could have been anyone, but since he was the only one that had shown himself, I could make that guess.

"Hey," Volker called friendly, and Saikun turned around, but we found that it wasn't him, but a girl. She backed away and teleported without a portal, making it hard to follow her. Instead, he sighed and we moved on, stopping and preparing for the last waystone travel. Cedric was going to have to stay behind, but we're coming back for him, right?

Athena

Ashleyian Piren was a young farmer girl who was around fifteen at the time. She was small and petite, and she hadn't found her spark of life yet, so her eyes were empty of desire and her being was truly innocent. There was no darkness in her heart, yet no light, like a doll. She didn't have a good singing voice, and she was weak, frail even. I would have to teach her about the world on our travels.

The prince then got greedy, and would only let me go on the condition that I married him. I rejected his offer and snuck out with Ashleyian during the night a day later. We ran off, and with the prince's men fast asleep, we got hastily married to spite the prince. Ashleyian, being as young and innocent as she was, complied without question, and with that out of the way we ran off into the unknown.

My mother, after hearing from her yet unknown to me sources that I had gotten married to Ashleyian, came to give me praise, and helped us escape the kingdom, leaving all of her belongings behind. I heard from someone else that she had taken everything worthwhile and hid them beforehand, and burned down the house she had lived in.

She introduced me to a man named Ezashin who was a sorcerer from the distant future, and he taught us about the hidden world that my mother hadn't told me about. The supernatural world that plays and preys on the mortal one, hides in the shadows and in the light, hidden by the face of mortals. Ezashin himself was a demon, and he granted us immortality for nothing but our 'time'.

Soon, we learned how to cast spells and traveled without care, the prince forgotten. We heard about cities being started up and some dying down, and we traveled to all of them. Eventually, the emptiness in Ashleyian's eyes was replaced with emotion and personality, and we grew close, very close. Suddenly we couldn't imagine a life without each other, Ezashin or my mother be damned. But eventually the prince found us and took me and her back to his kingdom to be tried.

It had been a full three years, when Ashleyian and I should have aged much, but we were only mentally, not physically, three years older. The prince only saw that I had stayed the same beautiful person he last seen those three years ago, and not the woman I had become. He put me and her into prison, not recognizing how wrong he was in doing so. Ezashin located us and offered his power, and in payment that I would take every life in the kingdom, sans Ashleyian, my mother, a woman named Celty and a man named Noel. Those two were important to him for a different matter.

I agreed, and he introduced Noel sometime later to finish my magical training. My mother had been searching for Celty at that point in time, and fortunately the prince had enough honor and pride that he kept up his patience and askings of marriage. I kept my mouth shut on the matter of me and Ashleyian marrying each other, and still denied him on Ezashin's orders. Soon, though, the game began and the entire group wrecked havoc on the kingdom.

The prince fled and left his father the king to deal with us, and managed to escape the destruction until it was over, when he returned to the coliseum to wait for me. I met him and he tried to force himself onto me, but I kept him at bay. After all, he was only a prince, now king of a non-existent kingdom, and I was a traveler.

I told him about our adventures, like he had asked in the beginning of my adventure, and finished with the fact of me being married to Ashleyian. He listened patiently, from years of experience, and buckled to the ground in true representation of his kingdom. He couldn't believe me, but he could do not a thing. Celty, the woman I had later regretted letting do so, appeared and took the man away and used as a bargaining chip with the future to preserve her form, and became immortal.

As I was ignorant of the fact until much, much later on, I thought nothing of it and returned to Ashleyian, to find that she had been kidnapped by madness and had been taken away farther than I had ever been. I then found that they, my mother, Ezashin, Noel, and Celty had left me without support afterwards.

After a series of epiphanies, I found that I was just fine, that I had places to go and someone to find. Someone dear to me, a young woman named Ashleyian Piren.

Volker

I braced myself for the Occuria, ready to face their near-divine power. However, when the waystone dropped us, we were not on the platform in the sky. Instead, we find ourselves in a old but large shrine. It had a high ceiling and was made of rocks, and the walls held several large statues, and to one side there was a, opening to the courtyard. The place was covered in moss, and the wind blowing through made a steady hum.

"Where are we?" Athena asked, but I could only shake my head.

"I don't know. Not where we're supposed to be," I told her, before a familiar portal appeared and Ezashin and Rachael stepped out, as well as a new girl. She was a blond elf with fair, unflawed rosy pink skin. Her eyes were the same amber color as the other daemons-

Daemons, demons, what's the difference besides origin?

… and carried a large scythe. The handle was black and the blade bronze. There was a counterbalance on the other tip that resembled a crescent moon, which hooked back towards her. She was taller than me and Ezashin, and was ever so slightly muscular that her muscles pushed her arms out.

"Volker, my boy, you disappoint me. I believe we had an agreement," Ezashin said, his hands on his staff.

"The agreement was that I return the shard and then find you. I was right about to meet with the Occuria when the waystone took me here," I told him.

"What was my other condition? If you steel yourself and/or train prior to making the agreement that we would take it upon ourselves to rid you of your companions. I believe that making a pact with… your umbral horseman counts," he pointed out.

"Well that's not completely fair," Saikun's voice echoed, before appearing beside me. "You have to let him get there before you can say that."

"Ah, Saikun my boy! Perfect timing once more!" Ezashin said with a friendly tone. "I was just about to send my Kill Sat over your home on behalf of the End, but seeing how you're here and not there makes the process go so much smoother. Now if only Michael can finish without me that would make my day all the better."

Athena growled, but Saikun put out his arm to intercept her. "Oh ho ho! My deary, you just become more cuter when you're angry, so it's not going to work on this fellow. Anyway, Bianca, don't you want to introduce them to someone?"

"Aerossi and Volk, I'll send you to deal with the Kill Sat; Athena and Ash, deal with the other two. I've got Bianca," Saikun said quickly, drawing his sword and blocking the elf. He pressed Bianca and threw her into the air over the courtyard and threw out his arm to make a portal to his hometown. I hurried through with Aerossi behind me, leaving Athena and Ash to deal with Ezashin and Rachael.

To be honest, I might have met Saikun sometime in my life, maybe during some sessions of dungeons and dragons, but even though I couldn't remember when or where I might have met him, his home town was mine too.


	11. Chapter 11: Finale

Volker

I looked over my neighborhood, quiet and serene. It was night, and the position of the moon gave away the floating fortress high above. It was silently hovering there, but not for long I figured.

"Let's hurry," I said, and Aerossi nodded. She spread her wings and kicked of the ground, and taking her hand we flew toward our destination. Images of the girl who I met back then, who I went on a date with and this version of her, who already knew who what was going to happen afterwards. At least, up until now.

The night was cold and the air just slight, making Aerossi's hand warmer than usual. I looked at her, at what kind of girl she's become. If one day her old self goes missing and begins this story herself, I'll only have to wait until she gets through this to be with her again. I love her, Courtney.

I looked back to see the aerial fortress before me and Aerossi breaking suddenly, causing me to shot forward. I recalled the float spell and used it, but the momentum rocketed me into the satellite. It caused me to punch a dent into the machine, but the float spell made my gravity to center on the mechanism. Before I got any special ideas, I rushed to the top with Aerossi behind me, and I found a hatch and looked inside, finding nothing, and opened and entered.

There wasn't anyone on board, so me and Aerossi were uncontested. We looked around for the control room, but it was already sabotaged and hardwired to go off in ten minutes. Not a risk taker, we hurried to the Engine room and found the tank almost empty. We hurried back to the control room and submitted to finding the correct wire, and ended up cutting both in caution. The timer screen blacked out, and me and Aerossi sighed and hugged each other.

But it wasn't to last, as the main power kicked on. The timer screen flicked back on to show us that the firing process was starting up and we had less than four minutes. We double checked the cords and found that they were still cut cleanly, but decided to wave it off. We were out of obvious options, and we were lost for the solution.

I then remembered something from the game: the sinking of the Leviathan Warship.

"Wait for me at the exit, I've got something in mind to take down this piece of metal," I told her, and she nodded and ran off. I hurried back to the engine room and searched for the energy tank. It was jammed shut, so I took the iron sword and broke the lock, then opened it up. there was a ball of light which might have been the gathering power source, and dug the nethicite shard out and tossed it in.

I shut the door and hurried back to the exit where Aerossi was waiting. I recast the float spell as the satellite started vibrating and grabbed her hand as she dashed out the door into the night air. We flew far away, leaving space for the nethicite to do its job, watching the lights on the machine darken as the laser charged, then rapidly failed. The machine started collapsing in on itself, before an explosion from the satellite disrupted the nethicite's work and caused it to absorb and seal away the power taken from the satellite, rather than releasing it in a burst of destruction.

The heart shone brightly for just a moment, before descending slowly as gravity took it down. We flew up and took it from the air, and landed near my house. I hugged Aerossi and she did too, and warmed ourselves up in the cold night.

"I remember now. Your name's Courtney," I said eventually, and she hugged me tighter.

"That's right, it is," Courtney agreed. She pulled away and we kissed. The cold night air was starting to get to us, so we turned to head toward my house when we found that Athena, no, Nihzil was waiting patiently for us to finish.

"Are you ready to go back?" she asked emptily. It unnerved me, how much different her appearances were, but that's how people change. I nodded, and she activated her portal. "From here on, there is no turning back and restarting. Once you walk through, everything will be set in stone and can not be changed without dire consequences. Are you ready?" she repeated her question, standing. She put her hands on her lap, and looked at both of us.

"Yes, I am ready," I said, placing my hand on my sword.

"So am I," Courtney agreed, and Nihzil stood aside.

"After you," she said. I gave her a smile, but she remained blank. I passed her and, with Courtney behind me, entered the portal back to the temple.

Almost immediately we froze at the horror presented to us, and the feeling escalated with the portal closing behind us. I unsheathed my Deathbringer as Ezashin looked up at us with a look of victory. Athena was tied with strands of her own hair to the statues, albeit with her body unscathed. Ashleyian, however, laid on her back, her arms spread out with the contents of her abdomen laid out next her and on her legs. Saikun was nowhere to be seen.

"She's still alive, but she won't be having kids anytime soon," Ezashin said, putting on his business coat.

"You goddamn bast-"

"Bastard, right? Anyway, my job's done here. I have clients to attend to so I'll be heading out now," he said, turning away.

I rushed at him, but suddenly, despite his girth, Ezashin spun around and knocked the air out of my lungs with a solid punch with steel knuckles. I buckled instantly before watching him move on, Courtney catching me.

"Get… Back… Here…" I said weakly, trying to stand.

"No, you are simply not worth my time. If you want to be killed so very much, then I'll tell one of my associates to come and kill you," Ezashin said calling his portal.

Courtney gently put me down and grabbed her spear and tried herself to fight Ezashin, but the demonic business man was prepared for her, whipping around breaking the spear and punching her across the room, causing her to cough up the blood that was leaking through my teeth.

"You two need to figure out that both of you are outclassed, undermanned and underpowered," Ezashin stated, walking through his portal.

I struggled to get up, and the portal reappeared. Nihzil darted out to her daughter, Saikun following with his hood up. Nihzil snapped the threads and caught her falling daughter, before trying to wake her. Saikun went to Ashleyian's side and used a recovery spell to seal up the wound mostly. The entrails stayed outside of her body, but she opened her eyes weakly.

"Sai…" she said. he nodded and moved over to me and helped me up to my feet and over to Ash. His hood caused his face to be hidden by the shade, arousing curiosity, but I turned toward Ash. When I could breathe normally, Saikun helped me lift Ash. Nihzil took Athena out of the area, then returned to help me. I looked over to Courtney, but Nihzil stood in my line of sight. She moved me away from her, and Saikun moved over to Courtney.

Nihzil resummoned her portal, and hesitated before we went through. I took this moment to look over my shoulder. Saikun had Courtney in the air, through telekinesis, and drew his sword. I panicked and turned to go after him, but Nihzil blocked me and pushed me through the portal. I was paralyzed, unable to save Courtney.

My arms felt weak, but with Ashleyian in them I had to stay strong for… what I had… left to save. Damn it! Damn it all!

I followed Nihzil silently, finding myself back in the Feywood. This part wasn't familiar, and soon we came across a tunnel with a large door with a runic keyhole, one that doesn't use a physical key. The cold air and snow chilled me, and I stood there, waiting for further notice from this woman. Saikun, you traitor.

Nihzil stopped before the tunnel and took Ashleyian from me, then whistled. Cedric warped his own way here, and landed with a resounding thud on the moist ground. Nihzil said something unintelligible before teleporting away, leaving me and Cedric to do whatever. I looked at him blankly and he motioned to lead into the tunnel. I nodded, and turned into the tunnel and entered. The lock broke and the door opened, and we went through. Cedric buffed himself up, trying to get me to smile, but to no avail.

Inside the tunnel was a wide cavity in the mountain flooded with lava, with a trail leading up to a platform in the midst with a massive blacksmithing setup. The anvil was very heavily dented, and the hammer's handle broken. Cedric put his hand out to stop me, and shook his head, then gestured to himself to go out there alone. He did so, and the lava stirred. The waves rippled out from a single point far out in the lava basin, then trailed toward the platform in a curved fashion.

A being rose out of the water causing the ripples, and looked the two of us over, before rising out of the water and standing taller than Cedric. It had the form of a minotaur with red skin, brown fur and hair, and yellow horns, along with red eyes and a long tail and a fierce talon-like claws and built muscles brimming for its chest.

"….And who the hell are you two?" it said.

"Cedric," the horseman said, the words warped somewhat.

"Volker," I said evenly. The heat was sweltering, but I wasn't sweating just yet. I recalled a bit of random memory, and raised my voice. "Are you Oni Getsu?"

"Yeah, what the hell do you guys want? Want to fukking fight, or are you just here to appease me?" Getsu asked, and Cedric drew the Umbral Excalibur and shield from the sheath on his new belt. "I like you, Cedric, but I'm going to have to fukk you up now. Boy, you're next."

Getsu reached into the lava and ducked into it for a moment, and when he came back up he held what I believe to be the Damascus Cleaver. True to its name, the stainless steel blade easily fit into Getsu's hand and looked like a long butcher knife in scale. He gripped the blade with both hands and swung. Cedric parried, and pushed Getsu back. The heat in the room built up as I gripped the Deathbringer tightly, causing my hand to hurt.

Nihzil

I sat patiently for Volker to finish his fight, amusing myself with the mixed feelings of Athena as the doctors prevented her from seeing Ashleyian's operation in progress. She struggled against the doctors and finally the security guard, before being hauled out by five of them. She tried to reenter the building, but the police arrived and took her away, finding out that the taser doesn't work on her.

The forest here seemed to be snowing, but I couldn't feel the cold like everyone else. It was beauty given a form all around me, and the smell of twisted pine felt sweet. I laid back in the snow, listening to the soft crunch of the crushed flakes beneath me. I wondered what everyone was doing, as everyone seemed to have something going on.

I sighed, and watched the vapor become visible in the cold. I stared on when it dispersed and up into the tree, whose branches were laden with snow. One swift hit to the tree and-

Something raced over my head and hit the tree, making the snow slip from the branch and land on me like I was just thinking. I sat up to see Volker with an emotionless glare. He held both Cedric's great sword and Getsu's cleaver, which appeared too heavy to actually hold up so he was dragging it.

"So everything went according to plan," I told him cheerfully, smiling brightly, and he dropped the cleaver to smack me across the face. I looked back at him to see that the glare was now watered down, and a tear ran down his cheek. "Oh yes, everything," I repeated.

He dropped the great sword as well and knelt down, hands on his face as he cried for his lost friends. But everything worked out in the end, Getsu's dead, his first mission accomplished, albeit by proxy, and he retrieved the sword he wanted. Now all that's left is to purify the sword and find Toushou. I started to laugh, and I reached down and put my hand on his back in congrats.

'Ashleyian Piren'

With my younger self in the hospital, Saikun cleaning up loose ends, Volker and Nihzil dealing with Getsu and Athena in jail for the week, the only thing I had left to me was assisting Mikimi and Cynthia in the kitchen fixing dinner. There was a knock on the door, so I quickly washed my hands and hurried to the door. I peeked through the eyehole and saw someone who wasn't wanted, but I opened the door anyway.

"Good evening, Miss Osvolt. Do you have a moment? I would like to have a rematch that you promised me almost twenty years ago, when you were about fourteen," Ezashin said, recalling a terrible memory. I felt like slamming the door on his face, but pride kept me from doing so.

"Come in. I'll take you to the basement," I said, stepping aside for him. Sonia was right behind him, but I shut the door on her, but she phased through. I shot her a glare, but she shook it off. I led them down the hall then downstairs to the basement. I then activated the Void room and opened the door that led into it. I held the door open for them and closed it after retrieving my blade Satsui.

"Sonia, it would be best if you stood out on this match. It is an one-on-one non-lethal sparring match," Ezashin told his subordinate. Sonia nodded and stood back, relaxing.

"Ezashin, how much do you remember of that day?" I asked, walking a bit inwards, measuring out the current size of the room. It wasn't a stable room, made from a pocket dimension that was made just for the purpose of being somewhere that people would not interfere with the community while they can cause cataclysmic power bursts. Of course, as with every pocket dimension, it had its limits, and a few cataclysmic power bursts would tear the fabric of it, causing the dimension to collapse on itself.

"I remember that you took down another one of my members, but that I won the fight I had against you and Athena, along with Volker and Courtney. You still have your mutts somewhere, don't you?" Ezashin joked, and I nodded.

"I take care of them, unlike you," I said.

"Oh dear, of course I can't take care of all of them! They're simply too modest and nice for their own good," he followed up, reaching into his coat for his steel knuckles. I drew Satsui, and slung the sheath over my shoulders. This was going to be mine this time.

Sonia Diller

Ash lunged, and Ezashin sidestepped to dodge and knocked the glowing sword out of her grasp as she passed him, and it fell out of her reach as she tried grabbing it out of the air. Ezashin then grabbed her and threw her away, and she nimbly slid to a stop. Ash then circled around to the right and went for the blade. Ezashin reached out and grabbed a handful of her hair just out of reach of the blade and pulled her away. He then grabbed her throat with his other hand, letting go of her hair, and slammed her into the ground a couple times before holding her into the air.

"What happened to your strength that you had back then? Did you just leave it at the temple twenty years ago?" Ezashin asked, throwing her towards a wall. Ash stood up using the wall as support but Ezashin walked over to the wall and began smashing her against it until she was coughing up blood, then threw her to the ground. She struggled to her knees, choking on blood, as Ezashin stomped and pinned her to the ground.

"Well?" Ezashin asked, picking her up and pinning her against the wall. She glared at him for a moment, then turned away. "I can't have this now! You were supposed to beat me in the second round so that we can have a third one!"

Ezashin dropped her to the ground and went over and picked up her sword and went over to the defeated Ash. She was an ordinary human woman who supported Nmend and had tangled with the supernatural, but had no power on her own. He picked her up again and forced the sword into her hands, then backed off to give her some room.

Ash felt the grip of the sword like she had never held it before, but shook her head and readied a strike. She charged, and started to swing but she was too slow. Ezashin uppercutted her and she buckled. Not satisfied, Ezashin held her up and punched her over and over until she started coughing up blood. Ezashin threw her down again and she stayed down, this time dropping the sword at Ezashin's feet.

"Now, this time I won't just do what I came here to do and leave. No, I think you are in need of a lesson," Ezashin told her, picking up her sword and flipping her onto her stomach. He took the blade and cut off her shirt collar and worked his way down the fabric. He took off her frayed shirt and reached down to undo her bra strap when a giant fist appeared and punched Ezashin off of her into a wall.

"Now what in the hell is going on here? Be nice to the fair lady," a young man's voice rang out and the fist receded. It belonged to a young boy with shaggy white hair and bright red bespectacled eyes, and as his arm came back to him it reverted into a human's to match the rest of his body. "Now where did you learn your manners?"

"You punkish brat, we were in a gentleman's brawl, a sparring match you could say, one-on-one was the goal. But since your mother was too messed up in the head to teach you proper respect for those older than you…" Ezashin sighed.

"What did you say about my mother?" the boy retorted, glaring at Ezashin.

"I said that your mother is too messed up in the head to teach you manners," Ezashin repeated, and the boy's anger spiked.

"What was that? My mother's messed up in the head? I'll fukking kill you!" he shouted, transforming into a wolf-like demon. He clenched his fists and iron formed around them to make gloves, and he swung. Ezashin realized that this was more than he could chew and stared in fear as he was pummeled against the wall.

When he reached back to throw another punch, I darted in between and teleported me and Ezashin from the room. It crashed into the wall behind us, fortunately not harming either of us.

"Now that's some firepower," Ezashin noted, before collecting himself enough to sit down in his office chair. "Now let's see what next on the schedule," he said, pulling up the calendar and putting on his reading glasses.

"It's dealing with the girl that showed up in the desert. The one who destroyed Michael's human form and was sent to this time," Nihzil told him, playfully kicking out her legs.

"Ah, yes. Here it is. Should we invite her into the club? Maybe doing so would be advantageous."

"I don't know," Nihzil said, before looking around this space of Nothing. "It never happened."

'Ashleyian Piren'

The young man calmed down enough to take a breather, and reverted back into human form. His clothes came back as well, albeit a different design. He wore a blue tee and a black unbuttoned dress shirt over it and loose black jeans, and blue and white tennis shoes which laces were undone.

He walked over to me and sat me up, as much of a mess that I was. "You alright?" he asked, and I nodded.

"As good as I'll ever be," I told him, and he started chuckling.

"I thought I was the one who needed help," he remarked.

"You came for help?" I asked and he nodded this time. "If you wait for just a bit longer, I'll send help your way, but right now I need to rest."

"You humans don't have the endurance we do," he noted and once more I looked at him.

"What are you? For that matter who are you?"

"A pure blood demon, going by the name Mikaru Keiko," Mikaru told me, his red eyes blinking towards me, before turning away.

"Relax with me for just a few more moments," I asked, and he held me closer. "Mikaru, huh. You wouldn't happen to know a girl named Brianna, would you?"

Courtney

I shook my head from the thoughts of Volker, the guy who went for a date with me one day and disappeared completely for nearly a week, trying to convince myself he had left for good. But the idea of recalling someone right before meeting them again persisted.

I looked back to my notes and read them over, trying to store them once more into my memory. The teacher rambled on, and I jot down some more notes when the bell rang for lunch. I rushed to put my stuff in my bag and left the room. I met up with Kris as we went down the hallway and we started to talk about the latest complaint about the teachers. I left the hall and went down the stairs and followed her into the lunch line. I took a teriyaki rice bowl and took a milk before heading over to the far side of the Commons and took a seat on the end of the bench.

"Hey." I turned around and saw him, Volker. He was beaten and his shirt was bloodstained, and he looked very tired. He had his bag hanging next to him and his hair was a brown mess. But in his eyes I could see a deep sadness.

I got up and hurried over him, before catching him as he fell from the sudden pressure. "What happened to you?" I asked him, surprised.

"Took a walk, fell down some stairs, escaped from the hospital," he said, before fainting. The staff members arrived shortly after and he was sent to the nurse's office until an ambulance arrived to retrieve his wounded body. It didn't mean I was exempt from school thereafter, but it made me a bit happier that he was at least in one piece.


End file.
